Over the last 60 years (almost) the Young Belgian Painters Award has gone to Pierre Alechinsky, Raoul De Keyser, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Manon De Boer, Hans Op de Beeck, and Olivier Foulon, among others. From over 200 proposals submitted this year, the jury has selected seven artists who explore the art of today openly and freely, without doctrinaire or aesthetic prejudices. Jeroen Hollander's imaginary cartography, Robert Kot's intense photographic landscapes, Caroline Pekle's houses of cards and other images that refer to the notion of displacement, and the kinetic sculptures by Els Vermang of the LAb[au] group all bear witness to individual itineraries marked by the urban experience. Work on memory is another central theme, taken up by Nico Dockx in his critical exploration of the archives of the Centre for Fine Arts and by Lara Mennes in her photographs of working-class housing in Genk. Leon Vranken, for his part, distorts everyday objects and succeeds in shifting our perception of the real.

http://www.jeunepeinturebelge.be/

Award ceremony on the 24th of June at 6.30 pm

Jury: Charlotte Laubard (CAPC, Bordeaux), Friedrich Meschede (MACBA, Barcelona), Macha Roesink (Museum De Paviljoens, Almere), and Yves Aupetitallot (Le Magasin, Grenoble)