Vrienden van SMAK Friends of SMAK

Vrienden van SMAK Friends of SMAK Vrienden van S.M.A.K. hebben sinds 1957 een ledenwerking, verzamelen kunstwerken en organiseren tal van activiteiten in binnen- en buitenland.

New limited edition by Francisca García & Mario NavarroDoble soliloquio/double soliloquy, 202613 + 2 AP50 x 70 cm, silks...
06/05/2026

New limited edition by Francisca García & Mario Navarro

Doble soliloquio/double soliloquy, 2026
13 + 2 AP
50 x 70 cm, silkscreen on Munken Rough 300 gr paper with glued felt figure
Every work is unique

> smak.be

Francisca García and Mario Navarro have their solo exhibition ‘Unearthed Conversation’ until September 13th.

Chilean artists Francisca García and Mario Navarro’s exhibition – ‘Unearthed Conversation’ – is inspired by the Atacama Desert. Located at the mouth of the Loa River in northern Chile, this is a landscape shaped by diverse narratives: ancient Chango archaeological sites, a geological resemblance to the planet Mars, home to the world’s largest telescopes, and still scarred by the Pinochet dictatorship.

Motivated by Aquí vivieron (1964), a documentary by Chilean filmmakers Pedro Chaskel and Héctor Ríos, as well as images recorded on Mars by NASA’s Perseverance rover, the artists explore how past, present, and future landscapes converge. Through sculpture, video, sound, textiles and watercolours, they delve into the idea of the surface as a boundary between what is known, when exposed, and the unknown, which lies hidden beneath the ground, and is investigated and discovered. Unearthed Conversation reveals how human ‘discoveries’ are inevitably accompanied by desire, appropriation, and colonization. By focusing on the silent material witnesses of a culture, they contrast fragile early modes of discovery with the optimism surrounding contemporary technological innovation.

In their work, Francisca García (b. 1969, Santiago, Chile) and Mario Navarro (b. 1970, Santiago, Chile) each excavate the visible manifestations of the world around us from their individual perspectives. Although they maintain separate artistic practices, they are collaborating on this project at S.M.A.K. They share a ‘forensic’ approach to image, landscape, politics and utopias.



exhibition views: Dirk Pauwels

Visited the studio of Nokukhanya Langa (°1991, USA/ZA) her work also leaves room for different possibilities, opportuni...
22/03/2026

Visited the studio of

Nokukhanya Langa (°1991, USA/ZA) her work also leaves room for different possibilities, opportunities and (time) perspectives. In her art practice she reconciles the pluralities of her personal story with political and cultural history. Curious to know if there are other ways to take hold of it, her work is an exploration of figuration and abstraction, an inquiry into the loss of the image, and by extension, of reality in general.

Intuitively the artist balances these abstractions with more figuratively recognizable motifs: text, signs and drawings that are midway between cavemen drawings, sketches, scribbles, grafitti tags, signal signs and signatures. Constantly shifting back and forth between figuration and abstraction, Langa’s work is never simply unambiguous, finished or determined. On the contrary, by fading in and out, blurring, dismantling and building up, it is in a constant process of becoming.

Noku lives and works in Rotterdam (NL) and is represented in Belgium by

Friends of S.M.A.K. | Editions from the Collection 2000–2025A selection editions on view at our space Each year, the Fr...
04/03/2026

Friends of S.M.A.K. | Editions from the Collection 2000–2025
A selection editions on view at our space

Each year, the Friends of S.M.A.K. invite artists to create a limited edition artwork. This longstanding tradition dates back to 1960. The selection of artists is often closely linked to S.M.A.K.’s exhibition programme. One copy of each edition is added to the museum’s collection.

Art editions are artworks produced in a limited run, signed and numbered by the artist. By publishing these editions, we offer our members and followers the opportunity to acquire artworks at an accessible price.

This year, we are placing special emphasis on our editions with the publication of a book presenting an overview of all S.M.A.K. editions from the period 2000–2025.

This book will be launched this summer. On this occasion, you can allready enjoy a
selection of editions released during that period in our space.

Finally, you can also discover our most recently released editions. By purchasing an art edition, you support the activities of the Friends of S.M.A.K. and the continued growth of the museum.

With works of:
Massimo Bartolini, Fred Bervoets, Willem Boel, Elke Andreas Boon, Michiel Ceulers, Marie Cloquet, Stijn Cole, Denicolai & Provoost, Joëlle Dubois, Rein Dufait, Alfred d’Ursel, Anneke Eussen, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Melissa Gordon, Nikolay Karabinovych, Nicolás Lamas, Marc Nagtzaam, Nadia
Naveau, Sofie Muller, Shirley Villavicencio Pizango, Robbert&Frank Frank&Robbert, Clara Spilliaert, Thomas Vandenberghe, Koen van den Broek, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Carole Vanderlinden, Birde Vanheerswynghels, Sine Van Menxel

Photography: Dirk Pauwels

New limited edition ‘Red Rocket’ by artist .pauwaert 💥
21/02/2026

New limited edition ‘Red Rocket’ by artist .pauwaert 💥

New limited edition by .pauwaert Joost Pauwaert | Red Rocket, 2025 - 202610 + 2 AP10 unique handmade works+/- 3 x 26 x 3...
21/02/2026

New limited edition by .pauwaert

Joost Pauwaert | Red Rocket, 2025 - 2026
10 + 2 AP
10 unique handmade works
+/- 3 x 26 x 3,5 cm, cupper with Acrylic paint

Joost Pauwaert’s work explores the relationship between power, beauty, and poetry, often infused with a playful, childlike curiosity. He integrates familiar and symbolic imagery that evokes both recognition and tension. Pauwaert is
drawn to the aesthetic of the imposing and the monumental, balancing this with a sense of the caricatural and symbolic wonder that softens its intensity and opens up imaginative possibilities.

Joost Pauwaert (1985, Bretzenheim, DE) works and lives in Wilrijk, Belgium. In the past years his works have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions during several gallery group and solo exhibitions at and other venues such at Ooidonk Art Festival, C-MINE in Genk, Art Brussels, Art Cologne, Galerie Eric Mouchet (FR), Archipel at Deweer Gallery Estate (Otegem), Art Rotterdam, Ponti gallery (Antwerp), Pizza gallery (Antwerp), Gevaertsdreef (Oudenaarde), PASS kunstroute (Lede) and Emergent in Veurne.

After his 2nd solo ‘The End Is Near’ in 2024 accompanied by the performance ‘Apocalyptic Triumph Parade’ one of the sculptures was acquired by Museum of Deinze en De Leiestreek. He also participated in the debut exhibition of museum ABBY in Kortrijk (BE) where he held a performance at the museum in September 2025.

Friends of S.M.A.K. visited his studio a year ago.

The artist currently has his solo exhibition, A Good Hammering, at KIOSK in Ghent, until March 15, 2026.

15.Mar. 26
Ongoing performance - Joost Pauwaert
KIOSK, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Photography of the editons: Dirk Pauwels

Exhibition views: Joost Pauwaert, A Good Hammering, , Belgium

New limited edition by Marc De BlieckMarc De Blieck | Ricochet II (From Shady Groove), 202515 + 3 APdigital photomontage...
14/01/2026

New limited edition by Marc De Blieck

Marc De Blieck | Ricochet II (From Shady Groove), 2025
15 + 3 AP
digital photomontage, inkjet print 45 x 17 cm (in frame 55,5 x 26,5 cm)

Purchase > www.smak.be

Marc De Blieck (b. 1958, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium) approaches photography as a nexus of technological processes, cultural conventions and aesthetic norms. Despite their simple structure, his images reveal an increasingly complex visual grammar, exposing the tension between photographic registration and artificial construction.

radically questions the obviousness of photographic images.
The edition is a digital montage and is based on the work Ricochet, which the artist created about the trajectory of several snipers who randomly shot people near Washington, DC.

The artist currently has his solo exhibition, Point de voir, , on view until March 8, 2026.

The exhibition brings together new and pre-existing work and highlights how the artist critically reflects on the manufacturability of images.

Photos by Dirk Pauwels.

Visited the studio of Kristof Santy (°1987, Roeselare, Belgium) is a contemporary painter whose work is rooted in folk ...
13/12/2025

Visited the studio of

Kristof Santy (°1987, Roeselare, Belgium) is a contemporary painter whose work is rooted in folk traditions and everyday aesthetics.

His vibrant, figurative paintings explore the visual language of daily life—ranging from culinary scenes and domestic interiors to landscapes and folkloric references. Influenced by myth, memory, and craftsmanship, Santy renders familiar motifs through a bold, playful lens.
Before pursuing art full-time, Santy worked in a factory and only rediscovered painting in his mid-twenties. The specific discovery of works by Jean Brusselmans had a profound influence on Santy’s own work as he began to find enormous freedom in the expressive painting of typically mundane and everyday subjects. Subsequently, Santy discovered his own individual way of painting, producing his first figurative works and still lives.


Since then, he has built an impressive artistic career, developing a distinctive style characterized by flat, geometric planes, saturated colors, and a non-narrative, intuitive approach.


His compositions evoke the spirit of “Images d’Épinal” and transform ordinary subjects into monumental, stylized visions. His work has been exhibited internationally, including solo shows at Sorry We’re Closed Brussels (Playtime, 2023) and Christine König Galerie Vienna (Epinal, 2024). He has been included in group exhibitions at Abby Museum, Mu.ZEE, S.M.A.K. and kunsthaus nrw.

Santy recently participated in the exhibition Painting After Painting

New limited edition by Michiel Ceulers | Stielman, 20255 + 2 APunique works, paint on canvas, size of an adult personMi...
25/11/2025

New limited edition by

Michiel Ceulers | Stielman, 2025
5 + 2 AP
unique works, paint on canvas, size of an adult person

Michiel Ceulers’s process-oriented abstract paintings are known for bearing evidence of their mistreatment in the artist’s studio, where he routinely stacks paintings against one another before they are fully dry. Often tearing, taping, sanding, and puncturing his canvases, Ceulers’s works feature imperfect geometric shapes and patterns, a playful engagement with art historical styles.

Michiel Ceulers (b. 1986, Waregem, Belgium) lives and works in Ghent, Belgium and Berlin, Germany. Ceulers graduated from the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam in 2011.

The artist showed work in the recent group exhibition Painting After Painting at S.M.A.K.

last image, right side: a work of Michiel Ceulers in the exhibitiom ‘Painting After Painting’ at S.M.A.K., 2025

photography: Dirk Pauwels

Visited the studio of Augustas Serapinas (1990, Vilnius) tells stories of places, people and site specific memories in ...
24/10/2025

Visited the studio of

Augustas Serapinas (1990, Vilnius) tells stories of places, people and site specific memories in his installations. By removing the usual properties of specific spaces and objects and attributing new characteristics to them, Serapinas changes our previous perceptions. Through these spatial shifts, he rethinks (in-between) space as a public place and makes visible the institutional, hierarchical or even economic functions resulting from architectural conditions. In many of his works he engages with his country of origin and illuminates facets of Lithuania’s geography, history and culture in subtle and humorous ways. Serapinas’ artistic work is characterized by a spontaneous and above all intense engagement with his immediate surroundings. He often works with people from the neighbourhood and actively involves them in the process of creating his work.

image 2: exhibition view ‘Wooden Travel’ by Augustas Serapinas at Fondazione ICA Milano, courtesy by the artist

image 7: installation view, ‘Šakotis’ by Augustas Serapinas

image 12: Augustas Serapinas, ‘Remains of the House from Skirgiškės’, 2022, reclaimed wood

New limited unique edition by Pélagie Gbaguidi | Rendre (les arbres, les fruits, le soleil, le cobalt, le caoutchouc, l...
24/10/2025

New limited unique edition by

Pélagie Gbaguidi | Rendre (les arbres, les fruits, le soleil, le cobalt, le caoutchouc, les graines,…), 2025
15 + 2 AP (13 for sale)
unique work, paint, collage on UV-print on a copper plate
21,5 x 24 cm, 31 x 34 cm framed with art glass

The work of Pélagie Gbaguidi (°1965, Dakar, Senegal) focuses on colonial and post-colonial history. She describes herself as a contemporary ‘griot’. Traditionally this term alludes to a West-African storyteller who preserves oral histories and cultural traditions. She herself defines her role as a mediator between individual memories and the ancestral past. Gbaguidi’s works often allude to the overlooked stories which so-called official historiography tries to rid of simplifications, archetypes and even lies. The artist is active in diverse media, including painting, drawing, performance and installation.

Pélagie is now participating in 2 important international biennials, in Turkey and Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil.

The artist has 6 works in the collection.

Adres

Ghent

Telefoon

0032 9 2407625

Website

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