Brussels Fair Director’s Top Picks

‘Welcome home!’

It’s my favourite phrase.

Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to reside in some extraordinary places; Edinburgh, Los Angeles, London, Amsterdam, an off-grid Welsh cottage in the Black Mountains.

I was happily nomadic for a while too, spending 2 years working ‘on the road’, moving every week from art fair to art fair across the US and EU. One week in Aspen, the next in Athens; it was a wild, jet-lag hazed time during which my colleagues and fellow gallerists became like family to me.

As a result, the concept of what makes a place or person feel like ‘home’ is one I’ve thought about a lot.

From my first experience of Affordable Art Fair Brussels in 2015, it’s been obvious why Angèle is so enamoured with her home city. The English adage claims ‘home is where the heart is’ and Brussels is full of sweet-hearts!

You’re everywhere. The acquaintance patiently advising on which commune might suit best. The woman offering an invite to her engagement party in the first meeting. The stranger spontaneously saying ‘hello’ on the street.

Not only this but, like me, so many of you love and, are proud of how much you love, art!

It’s made me feel blessed to lay my head in the cosy, quirky embrace of Brussels at night and to spend my days creating a fair for you lovely citizens of Belgium and beyond to enjoy art and each other at.

So without further ado, here are my picks of the 13th edition of Affordable Art Fair Brussels.

These are the ones hanging in my dream house…the ones whispering ‘welcome home.’

PLANETARY ALIGNMENT

These two striking works, by Spanish painter Jordi Sabat and American photographer Hayley Eichenbaum, with their strong horizontal compositions and sensitive, still atmospheres, inspire quiet contemplation and, to pause and consider concepts around cosmic connection.

Planetary motifs often have a magnetic effect on me, perhaps because I grew up with a little sister, Phoebe, loving that her namesake is the Greek Goddess of the Moon. These sublime works remind me of her and the universal wonders of womanhood.

PEACE, PERFECT, PAINTED PEACE

In the chaotic world of ever-pinging phones and endless emails, there’s sanctuary to be found in the harmonious refuges created by Leszek Skurski and Christine Tresca. The seemingly effortless grace of the artists’ brushstrokes combine with balanced, modest palettes to put the viewer totally at ease. These works are the definition of ‘understated elegance.’

WOODEN WONDER

Anyone else discover a new desire to surround themselves with wood after reading ‘The Secret Life of Trees’?

I have, so woodcut prints from Blaise Drummond and sculptures by Joachim Seitfudem and Egon Digon are all artworks I’ll be gazing longingly at throughout the fair.

Joachem and Egon’s sculptures, while in very different styles, one abstract, the other figurative, share an incredibly powerful physical intensity of tone which plays interestingly for me against the tenderness and sensuality with which most artists working in wood tend to approach the material.

Blaise Drummond’s work meanwhile, displays an enchanting combination of playful mark-making and reverent geometric architectural forms. Who wouldn’t want to take their mind for a wander through this poetic Winter scene?

PURPLE REIGN

Forms and colours caress irresistibly below in the silky surfaces and violet tones of these lustrous works by Willi Siber and Thorbjørn Bechmann. Their luxurious, jewel-like quality is completely hypnotic and I warmly encourage to bask in their shimmering glow at the Venet Haus Galerie & Galerie Hegemann and Nationale 8 Gallery stands.

GOOD TRIPS

Achingly cool in their contemporary graphic vocabularies, I’m already more than a little bit obsessed with the ‘vibe’ of Marc Galle andJulian Semiao’s artworks.

These particular examples of sophisticated surrealism speak directly to my farm and yoga studio–loving sensibilities and it’s impossible not to be impressed by the daring combinations of colour. Edgy and brave, I can’t wait to get a closer look at these two paintings.

IF I COULD ONLY HAVE ONE…

It would be this one. I love it. For many reasons, but firstly because, unlike the other artworks in this list, it was not love at first sight.

Initially, his bold palette and flattened forms felt like ‘too much’ and it was 7 years and numerous passing encounters at art fairs with Gordon Hopkins’ work before I was able to surrender and enjoy the irrepressible sunshine every pigment applied by this California-born, Brussels-based artist beams with.

Now his still lifes brighten all sorts of ideas, feelings and memories for me.

In this particular painting, with it’s vivid yellow and sky-blue passages, I’m reminded how much colours matter. That they can inspire us in big ways and small. Whether on flags or paintings.

I’m reminded of the bowl of lemons always on the kitchen island in my parents’ house.

And I’m reminded that we must treasure all the ingredients in our experience of being ‘home,’ in our cities, houses and each other’s company. After all, who knows when it might be taken from us?

With love and hopes of seeing you all at the fair!

Blythe