Discover our Co-Fair Directors’ top picks for Brussels 2026
Ahead of the Brussels fair (4–8 February, Tour & Taxis), we invite you to discover a selection of artworks that our Co‑Fair Directors, Annick Reibestein and Atena Abrahimia, are most looking forward to seeing at the fair’s 17th edition.
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Atena Abrahimia
Tuesday 27 January, 2026
With 1,000s of artworks presented by 91 galleries, choosing was no easy task, but a few artworks immediately caught our eye. These are the pieces we can’t wait to experience up close at the fair. With 21 new galleries joining this year and many returning exhibitors bringing new artists and fresh work, the 2026 edition promises an exciting array of new artworks to discover.
Annick Reibestein’s top picks
Si el cielo se rompe by Carlos Andrés López Murcia
Looking at this work by Carlos Andrés López Murcia, it gives me the feeling of something fragile and powerful at the same time. Sweeping brushstrokes in warm earth tones mingle with vivid bursts of colour. This piece has a way of drawing me inward, guiding my attention into the subject’s world.
Cherry Blossom in the Forest by Keishi Sakurai
Keishi Sakurai’s artwork shows a bright cherry blossom tree in full bloom, its soft pink branches reflected in still water like a quiet mirror. The gentle colors, from deep greens and blues in the background to light pinks and purples in the blossoms, give the scene a peaceful and poetic feeling.
Even with all its detail, the painting feels frozen in time, capturing the stillness and short-lived beauty of spring. Seeing Japan’s cherry blossoms in full bloom is still at the very top of my bucket list and looking at this artwork makes me want to go even more.
Grandes pointes bleues by Brigitte Long
Brigitte Long’s sculptures mix flowing shapes, rough textures, and glowing colors in a way that feels both natural and carefully crafted. The bright blue gives the works strong energy. The forms remind me of rocks, sound waves and something almost futuristic, inviting me to walk around them and watch the shapes change with each new angle.
Haruko by Elsa Garate
Elsa Garate’s Haruko carries a quiet, reflective elegance and a careful balance of strength and delicacy. The work also echoes elements of traditional Japanese aesthetics, such as ma (the meaningful use of empty space), which give the portrait a contemplative atmosphere. I’m especially drawn to its sense of serenity, and it instantly puts me at ease, something I think we all need from time to time.
Atena Abrahimia’s top picks
Figure en terrazzo by Sacré Fred
I’m very excited to discover Sacré Fred’s paintings in real life at the fair. His work has been haunting me ever since I first encountered it. It felt immediately fresh and unlike anything I had seen before, and it stayed with me.
The crouched figure in Figure en terrazzo feels like a body assembled from fragments. Its surface, made up of colourful pieces, suggests an identity built layer by layer, much like our own. There is a calm presence to the scene, but also something quietly unsettling. Set against a dreamlike, almost cosmic landscape, the atmosphere hovers in a space that feels slightly surreal, somewhere between reality and imagination.
You can sense the artist’s background in cinema in the way this painting is constructed. Sacré Fred builds his scenes digitally, playing with gravity, light, scale, and movement, before translating them onto canvas with incredible precision.
Empreintes des gestes by Céline Pinckers
What draws me to Céline Pinckers’ work is the sense of calm that it gives me. There is a quiet, almost meditative quality to this piece. The embroidered shapes read like gentle hand movements, nearly choreographed, as if the artist’s gestures have been preserved in thread.
Working with cotton thread on linen, Céline allows the embroidery to build slowly, stitch by stitch.
Grue en dentelle by Élodie Antoine
This work by Élodie Antoine reminds me of the endless construction of my home country, Luxembourg, and how much the capital and my hometown has changed over the more than twelve years I’ve lived abroad. Every time I return, I discover a new building rising where another once stood or where there used to be open fields.
Here, however, the cranes are stripped of their usual steel and weight and rendered instead in lace, almost skeletal in form. Below them, tangled strips of lace accumulate echoing the constant process of building
In her practice, the artist investigates the potential of materials such as thread, fabric, wallpaper, wool carpet, and felt.
Marina by Lieza Dessein
This ceramic sculpture by Lieza Dessein stood out to me for its playful and surprising nature. It immediately took me back to my childhood, recalling the wooden push puppets I owned, figures that are designed to bend, fall, and reassemble.
While ceramics are traditionally associated with fragility and are expected to break when they fall, this figure collapses without shattering. Unlike the toy it represents, however, it cannot simply spring back into place, leaving the dog forever caught in a state of collapse.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Brussels fair. There’s still time to book tickets and join us at Tour & Taxis from 4 – 8 February.
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