KMSKA LATE Talks – Sophie Kuijken in collaboration with Galerie Nathalie Obadia

KMSKA is a place of tension and encounter: where old and modern masters challenge one another and new voices find resonance. In that spirit, we present a special series of talks: LATE TALKS.

During LATE TALKS promising artists are in the spotlight. In an intimate setting, they discuss their practice, their motivations, and the role of art today. How do they relate to tradition? What traces do the Old and Modern Masters leave in their work? And how do they translate that legacy into a contemporary visual language? LATE TALKS creates space for exchange and deeper exploration. No detached lectures, but lively conversations where ideas clash, perspectives shift, and new insights emerge. 
Here you’ll meet artists at a turning point in their careers: passionate, inquisitive, and in dialogue with a rich past.With this series, KMSKA offers a platform to a new generation of artists and strengthens its connection to the contemporary art field. LATE TALKS bridges the gap between eras, between practices, and between people.

During this edition, curator Samuel Mareel will be in conversation with Sophie Kuijken, following her solo exhibition running from 10 September to 25 October 2026 at Galerie Nathalie Obadia.

Sophie Kuijken (Bruges, 1965) lives and works in Willebringen, near Leuven. She graduated from KASK Ghent in 1988 and has developed a distinctive form of portraiture that brings together painting and digital visual culture. Her portraits, constructed from photographic fragments sourced from the internet, explore identity, memory and the mysterious nature of human existence. Since 2011, she has exhibited extensively in Belgium and France, with solo exhibitions at Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Brussels and Paris, the Dhondt-Dhaenens Museum, and a retrospective at the Centre d’art contemporain de la Matmut – Daniel Havis (2025). She has also taken part in numerous group exhibitions, and her works have been displayed alongside the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb in St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, amongst other venues.

Photo: ©Bertrand Huet / tutti image, Couresy of Galerie Nathalie Obadia Paris / Bruxelles