The Axel Vervoordt Company and Axel Vervoordt Gallery are located at a site known as Kanaal–a converted industrial distillery that has become a cultural and residential community.
Read MoreBoris Vervoordt created the Axel Vervoordt Gallery in 2011. The gallery opened in a historic space in the centre of Antwerp with an exhibition by Günther Uecker. Boris chose to open the gallery in the same exact place where his father had mounted exhibitions for Uecker and Jef Verheyen in the 1970s. The first exhibition—and those that followed—linked this new start to the company’s long history with art and its original home in the Vlaeykensgang. This continued a path of more than 40 years of working closely with artists.
'Our company has always followed a path of discovery and knowledge through art.'
– Boris Vervoordt
Boris's goal was to create the best possible platform for solo artists to present their work. Central to the gallery's on-going mission is a commitment to partnering with artist’s estates, as well as rediscovering artists whose work was under-appreciated during their lifetimes to preserve and promote their valuable contributions to art history.
The gallery expanded to Asia in 2014 with a space in central Hong Kong in the Entertainment Building.
In 2017, the Antwerp gallery moved to a new space at Kanaal, opening with a monumental retrospective of Kazuo Shiraga.
The gallery’s early program included a specialty in post-war and contemporary art with a specific focus on art from Europe, Japan, and Korea, particularly art from the ZERO and Gutai movements. An emphasis on Dansaekhwa followed, as the gallery’s program and participation in global art fairs grew in prominence and its roster of artists expanded.
'Art offers joy and endless inspiration. Artists force us to look at the world in new ways. Seeing works by gallery artists in in major institutions—like the Tate and Guggenheim—is validating, but even more, it ensures that they will be shared with a wide audience in the context of passionate scholarship.'
– Boris Vervoordt
Ocula Report Hong Kong Lowdown: Exhibitions to See By Tessa Moldan, Hong Kong As Hong Kong gradually opens up after months of lockdown, this lowdown provides a selection of exhibitions taking place throughout the summer.
Ocula Insight Frieze Viewing Room: Five Artwork Highlights By Ocula Advisory, New York Frieze Viewing Room has opened with its first edition dedicated to an online edition of Frieze New York. Ocula's Advisory team, in constant contact with the many leading galleries represented at Frieze, have reviewed what is on offer and provide a selection of their highlights.
Ocula Insight Taipei Connections: Eleven Works to Collect By Sam Gaskin, Taipei Ai Weiwei, Odyssey (2016) at Chambers Fine Art Resembling paintings on a Grecian urn, this wallpaper is an epic narrative about the plight of refugees, one of Ai Weiwei's chief concerns in recent years. Ai himself fled China for Europe after years of violence and intimidation. Dóra Maurer, Overlappings 34 (2006). Acrylic on canvas...
Ocula News Galleries Adjust Presentations for Art Basel Hong Kong's Online Viewing Rooms Hong Kong, 17 March 2020 Several galleries have chosen to show works they either couldn't have realised in a booth or look just as enticing on a device.
Related Press Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Announces 7 Site-Specific Installations 5 December 2019, The New York Times The artists are El Anatsui, Byung Hoon Choi, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Olafur Eliasson, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Cristina Iglesias and Ai Weiwei, and they were commissioned to create a mix of sculptures, light installations and suspended artworks for the 14-acre premises, known as the Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus.
Related Press 10 Hong Kong Art Exhibitions To See In November 2019 5 November 2019, Hong Kong Tatler Sinuous sculptures crafted from steel, post-WWII abstract paintings and celebrity portraits by Annie Leibovitz are just a few of the highlights of this month's exhibitions
Related Press Mirror image: Kimsooja’s self-reflective installations take over the French city of Poitiers 12 October 2019, Wallpaper* For more than 25 years, South Korean artist Kimsooja has focused her practice on a specific element in her country's visual culture: the bottari, a colourful bundle of cloth used to wrap and transport items by hand. It is a traditional and timeless component of life in Korea, where bottari fabrics are often recycled from old silk bedcovers, a...
Related Press Kimsooja in conversation 24 September 2019, Art Gallery NSW In the new exhibition Here we are at the Art Gallery of NSW, some of the most compelling women artists at work today consider the connections we create with others and how these connections resonate outwards through our lives. In the 2009 video A needle woman by Kimsooja, from the Gallery's collection, the figure of the artist, seen from...
Related Video & Audio El Anatsui: ‘The golden rule is, there are no rules’ 7 June 2019, Art Basel El Anatsui has carved a name for himself with his monumental hanging sculptures made with recycled metal scraps. As imposing and spectacular as they are fragile and portable, these works have been exhibited in some of the world's most prestigious institutions, most recently at Munich's Haus der Kunst and in the Venice Biennale's first Ghana...
Related Video & Audio Angel Vergara | Straatman 23 August 2017, Axel Vervoordt Straatman first appeared in front of the Belgian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1988. Ever since, he has been popping up in various places from Antwerp to Tokyo, both announced and by surprise. Leading up to the exhibition at Axel Vervoordt Gallery in September 2017, Straatman turned up in several locations around Antwerp throughout the month...
Related Video & Audio Michel Mouffe - Axel Vervoordt Gallery 8 June 2017, Axel Vervoordt Gallery © Hugo Frey. Courtesy the artist and Axel Vervoordt Gallery.
Related Video & Audio Kimsooja on 'Brilliant Ideas' 26 January 2017, Bloomberg Born in 1957 in Daegu, South Korea, Kimsooja started attracting the attention of the international art community when she began constructing Korean bottaris in her art – a gesture and motif that continues to appear in her work till today. Her art centers on the work and labor of women –beginning with her early sewn works, to her films and video...
