Art Brussels 08 Final Review



Another year we went to artbrussels. This time, to participate in the event, we proposed to take a "multitudinary photo" at the entrance. Not so many people appearing in the picture at the end, but at least it was funny and a good opportunity to meet some friends and also now to know new people. We would really like to thank all those who came, even those who arrive a bit later and coulnd't make it to appear in the pic.

Anyway, we really enjoyed the fair, which improves year after year. Great organisation and set up. We had the chance of finding great artworks, artists, galleries. Amongst them we would like to highlight Jozsa Gallery, who participated this year as First Call and with whom we had a nice chat (we really like this gallery!).

We also had the opportunity to talk to Dirk De Wit, Director of BAM Instituut voor beeldende,
audiovisuele en mediakunst.

The 26th edition of artbrussels closed its doors on Monday 21 April after having welcomed 34,332 visitors, good for an increase of 9% over past years. Never before have so many professionals, collectors and art lovers from home and abroad paid a visit to artbrussels. They all agree that the 2008 edition has been a great success!

After the opening night visitors were treated to a grand fireworks show at the Atomium in front of the exhibition halls held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Expo 58” world exhibition. The tone was set and the festive mood could not be broken during the entire period of the fair.

Especially striking was an increase in numbers of international collectors. With this edition, the position of artbrussels as Europe’s top ‘cutting edge’ fair for contemporary art has once more made its mark.

The combination of qualitative contemporary art, debates, concerts, the curated exhibition project ‘Ephemeral Fringes’ at the fair, the extensive off-programme activities including visits to private collections, the numerous dinners and parties, marks artbrussels on the map as the eminent European platform for contemporary art. On Saturday evening 400 exhibitors, collectors and artists visited the Mike Kelly exhibition at Wiels (the Brussels new Centre of the Arts) followed by the “artbrussels street food party” where the guests had fun until early hours.

Especially the diversity of the work by young and established talent guaranteed an interesting mix of conceptual art, contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, video and installations where quality noticeably prevailed.

Exhibitors accurately assessed the value of artbrussels and made an increased effort to show important works at the fair. The new HISK cafe where art lovers and artists could meet over a glass of beer, was more than well-visited and is certainly deserving of a repeat.

Solo shows and the annual Illy Prize:
Every year the Collectors’ Committee selects the winners of the Solo Shows: the third prize went to Michaël Aerts (Galerie Deweer-BE), the second prize to Slawomir Elsner (Sutton Lane – UK) and the first prize, to the tune of € 10,000, went to Koen van den Broek (Figge Von Rosen – DE).

Meanwhile, the Obelisk by Michaël Aerts, which was exhibited outside within the scope of the ‘Ephemeral Fringes’ exhibition project, was sold to a Belgian collector. The winning paintings by Koen van den Broek (between € 30,000 and € 48,000) were already sold on the opening night!

Numerous sales were concluded at the fair:
The French gallery Templon has increased sales by 50% compared to 2007. Templon is extremely satisfied with the excellent quality of the highly significant works on offer. A Robert Longo, valued at US$ 225,000 exchanged ownership at his stand.
Great sales at the Zander Photo Gallery including a Victor Burgin for € 65,000 and a Joel Meyrowitz for € 30,000.

The First Call gallery, Office Baroque, could sell the entire stand 3 times over again and had special interest for Davis Rhodes, a young and upcoming artist. Hans Op de Beeck who had to leave artbrussels to attend the opening of the Towada Art centre, a museum in Japan which has build a special 300m² hall to show his installation “Location 5” presented in Art Unlimited at Basel 2004 sold 10 watercolours (7.500€ each) at Xavier Hufkens and several sculptures (32.000€ each) at Ronmandos.

Wim Delvoye did a roaring trade in his affordably-priced Wim Shop, but also his more serious work received the requisite attention. At Rodolphe Janssen, one of his trucks sold for € 165,000.
At Buchmann, a collector bought a silver painting by Zaha Hadid for € 58,000. Deweer noted a significant increase in foreign collectors, which directly led to 50% of the sales going abroad.

For Michel Rein, artbrussels is an exceedingly gratifying fair which is becoming better each successive year. He sold, amongst other things, a sculpture by Didier Marcel for € 16,000 and was able to sell 10 paintings from the hand of Armand Jalut (€ 4,500/ piece) within ten minutes of the opening.

From Praz de la Vallade, nothing more than praise for artbrussels: they also did good business and bid farewell to a sculpture by Jim Shaw for a tidy US$ 55,000. artbrussels closed its doors after hosting 34,332 visitors and is presently readying itself for the 27th edition which will be held in 2009 from 16 to 20 April.

More info:

ART BRUSSELS
Press & Communication - Gerrie Soetaert
+32 (0)475/ 47 98 69
gerrie.soetaert@skynet.be
www.artbrussels.be  

JOZSA GALLERY
24, rue St. Georges
1050 Brussels
T +32 2 640 06 71
catherine@jozsagallery.com
www.jozsagallery.com

BAM
Bijlokekaai 7d,
9000 Gent, België
T +32 9 267.90.40
F +32 9 233.07.09
info@bamart.be
www.bamart.be