KMSKA puts full focus on new DNA in the upcoming months

Following the successful opening in 2022, the KMSKA presents its main focus points for 2023. The young up-and-coming artist Sharon Van Overmeiren kicks off the new year with an unexpected and refreshing exhibition in the Print Room. Next, it is the turn of the Catholic modernists during the Antwerp city festival Baroque Influencers. Author Saskia De Coster will voluntarily confine herself in the historical Salon of the KMSKA for a month. Who knows what effect this will have on the final stages of her latest novel? And the major autumn exhibition will feature some very special headliners. You will come face to face with Quinten Metsijs’ grotesque heads, Pieter Bruegels peasant mugs, the studies of a head by Peter Paul Rubens and the expressive visages by Adriaan Brouwer and Rembrandt.

A Topological Boulevard

28.01.2023 - 06.05.2023 (KMSKA Print Room)

Artist Sharon Van Overmeiren (Antwerp, 1985) made a selection of drawings, prints and books from the collection of the Museum Plantin-Moretus for the print room of the KMSKA. She confronts them with her own sculptures, which are created from parts of the most diverse objects. Where, when and by whom the original material was created is unimportant. Van Overmeiren combines the images freely and intuitively. There are no object labels in the exhibiton. As a result, the distinction between well-known artists and anonymous artisans disappears. Van Overmeiren presents the works in eleven surprising ensembles with an obscured chronology. The new, unexpected connections produce a playful result.

Saskia De Coster writes, lives and sleeps in the KMSKA

01.02.2023 – 28.02.2023 (Heroes Gallery)

The act of writing is fascinating. Yet the whole process is somewhat elusive and also largely invisible. How do you write a book? What brings inspiration? On many occasions in the past, writer and artist Saskia De Coster stated that all she needs to write a novel is a desk, a bed, a laptop and a measure of isolation. As a child, she wrote in a cubicle in the garden shed. There she could lose herself in her imagination. With the performance The Author is Present, she returns to those beginnings, but she steps the isolation up a notch. How does the writing process evolve when the writer completely disconnects from today's world of media and bans any form of communication? For a full month, De Coster will lock herself in a small room behind a transparent wall, in the Heroes Gallery at the KMSKA. In this gallery, full of paintings of craftsmen and labourers, she will work, write, live and sleep around the clock. The novel which De Coster will complete there is about how we as humans deal with unattainability, loss and the search for connection. Where generally it is the writer who observes the roles are now reversed. Visitors to the KMSKA can watch the writer in action, much as they look at the surrounding works of art created many years ago. In this way, the performance is also an ode to the old masters who live on in contemporary works.

De Pelgrim, art and meaning in a disenchanted world (1924-1931)

27.05.2023 - 03.09.2023 (KMSKA Print Room)

As part of the Antwerp city festival Baroque Influencers, KMSKA presents the exhibition De Pelgrim (The Pilgrim). In 1924, in the shadow of the historical avant-garde, a few Flemish artists founded the Catholic artists' association De Pelgrim (The Pilgrim). Their aim? To oppose a world that was becoming increasingly modern and to return to faith. However, they did not do so by clinging to the past. On the contrary. Pelgrim artists understood the new, innovative aspect of modern art all too well and used it as a tool to lure young and old back to the church. Call it a ‘rear-garde’. In its short existence, De Pelgrim managed to gather numerous artists from home and abroad. This exhibition delves deeper into the association's (international) network and the art that emerged from it. Expect a fascinating mix of paintings, drawings and documents.

Turning heads: Bruegel, Rubens and Rembrandt

20.10.2023 – 21.01.2024 (Exhibition Halls KMSKA)

Artists in the Low Countries were intrigued by the human face and often depicted it. And not only in portraits. They also painted countenances where the model's identity did not matter. Think of Quinten Metsijs' grotesque heads, Pieter Bruegel's peasant mugs, Peter Paul Rubens' studies of a head and the expressive visages by Adriaan Brouwer and Rembrandt. These works, sometimes called ‘mugs’, do not represent someone but something. Not a specific person but a type, feeling, or character trait. As a first-time feature, Turning heads explores the story behind these intriguing heads and showcases them in all their diversity. Rooted in innovative scholarly research, the project is translated into something light-hearted and accessible. The exhibition features a high-quality selection of some sixty works including prestigious loans of Flemish Masters (Metsijs, Bruegel, Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens and Brouwer) and leading international artists (Dürer, Bosch, Barocci, Rembrandt and Vermeer). The Antwerp Old Masters were phenomenal painters of faces. The KMSKA is therefore the ideal venue for the first major worldwide exhibition featuring these heads. Upon the exhibition's conclusion, it will travel on to the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin (24.02.2024 - 26.05.2024).

KMSKA Late

In 2022, KMSKA launched the finest nocturnes on Thursday nights. A special new tradition where, in addition to the fantastic collection, visitors can enjoy contemporary art interpretations starring our Artists in Residence. In the unique setting of the De Keyser Gallery, the pop-up Madonna Cocktail Bar provides delicious drinks and you can enjoy the museum staff's favourite music. We will continue this tradition in 2023. The museum will be open every Thursday night. The finest nocturnes will take place at least once a month. More info at kmska.be/kmska-late.

The above projects are some of the offerings for 2023. Furthermore, this year KMSKA will also participate in Erfgoeddag (Heritage Day), Museumnacht (Museum Night), Open Monumentendag (Open Monument Day), Kunstendag voor Kinderen (Children's Art Day) en Dag van de Wetenschap (Science Day), among others.

NOTE TO THE PRESS 

Visual materials can be found here.

If you would like additional information on any of the above projects or would like to request an interview or visit, please contact us using the contact information below.