Fair Director Highlights from Brussels 2025

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I can’t remember the last time I was so relieved to be on the spring side of the winter solstice. Brussels feels like it’s been stuck inside a concrete brick for the last couple of months and, like many of you, I’ve had to work hard to keep my spirits light.

Through the long nights and grey days, while counting the weeks until we’re back in the colour-packed sheds at Tour & Taxis, I’ve been enjoying the warmth of this little landscape I bought when supporting the Affordable Art Fair Melbourne team last summer.

Full of glowing greens and blues, I like thinking of the artist, Robert Kelly, sitting out there on the other side of the world, transposing this lush sunny view from the porch at his Mum’s house. It’s a very small work but it’s been bringing me so much joy.

This year at the Brussels fair, we have 90 galleries joining us from all over the world who will be packing their stands with thousands of artworks that hold the potential to comfort and transport us.

Here are some of the artists and artworks I’m most looking forward to seeing…

Everlasting Bisous

Time-travelling

It’s always interesting to spot connections in the treasures that call out to us and there’s an almost sibling-like quality in these two works by ceramicist, Claire Roger and painter, Romain van Wissem. They share much of the same DNA in terms of their fresh, contemporary colour palette, highly accomplished techniques and adventurous graphic qualities. And yet, while they were both created last year, they seem to have journeyed from different dimensions. Claire’s exquisite sculpture could have travelled to us from antiquity, radiating the same quality as an ancient dynasty vase, while Romain’s painting feels decidedly like it’s from the future. Both works would make stunning additions to any interior setting.

Construction work

Three of the artists who most intrigued me in reviewing the fair’s applications this year all approach architecture in refreshingly original ways. Mo Junseok’s 3D works are a stunning integration of line-drawing and sculpture, which explore boundaries and empty space. Anastasia Savinova’s digital collage works offer an invitation to explore the interconnectedness of our cities and spaces. While Brussels-based Yorick Efira presents eye-catching constructions, painstakingly created from cardboard.

The sublime

Defined as a scene which has a quality of greatness or grandeur that inspires awe and wonder, from the seventeenth century onwards this concept, has inspired countless artists and writers, particularly in relation to the natural world. I think every home benefits from a permanent reminder that, even though we might need to concentrate on emptying the dishwasher right now, the sublime is still out there. These three works manifest the concept differently but equally beautifully. It’s standing through the majesty of Serena Curmi’s grand mountains, glowing in Magali Cazo’s watercolour and blowing us away in Louisa Longstaff-Scales’ blustering landscape.

Fire

This month, the home I lived in when I was 18, burnt down in the Los Angeles Pacific Palisades and as a result, I’m feeling an acute awareness of the way fire shapes our lives. Iranian artist, Faezah Hamami’s work captures the complex, continuous chaos of a furious power in layers of collage and chalk. Meanwhile, photographer Søren Lynggaard’s work ‘Half’ shows the absolution of a before and after.

If I could only have one…

….it would be this beautiful oil on wood painting by French artist, Clair Aguilar. Like many I find it hard to resist ‘doom scrolling’ and despairing at all the terrible tragedies that occur across the world every day. They reach us through pings and dings, and the sheer volume of them can be numbing and leave us feeling helpless.

Claire’s painting, Etreinte-monde, offers an antidote to that. She captures, somewhat paradoxically, a fleeting intimate instant which lasts forever in the permanence of paint. There’s magic in the way she fuses different styles. Her technical realism style grounds us in the physical realm where tenderness and touch seem to offer kind reassurance to the figure, a light hand on the back. ‘You’re not alone.’

This gesture, she ignites with abstract clouds of colour which remind us of the metaphysical realm. Energy. Auras. Love in many colours. A world – hug.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Brussels fair. There’s still time to buy tickets and join us at Tour & Taxis from 5 – 9 February.