Art exhibitions to see in Brussels summer 2025
This summer, Brussels is quietly staking its claim as one of Europe’s most interesting art destinations. From fashion and design to contemporary art and ancient history, the city’s museums and galleries present a carefully curated selection of exhibitions that offer insight and provoke thought. At the Fashion & Lace Museum, 40+ Years of STIJL looks back at the boutique that helped define Belgian avant-garde fashion. Meanwhile, Bozar presents When We See Us, a sweeping survey of Black figurative painting over the past century, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, who was due to curate the 2024 Venice Biennale. WIELS offers a timely reflection on ecological uncertainty, while the Art Deco Villa Empain draws connections between ancient Egyptian artefacts and contemporary African art in its latest exhibition.
Here is our guide to some of the exhibitions not to miss in Brussels this summer. Whether you’re visiting for a weekend or longer, these shows are well worth seeing—and if the weather holds, Bozar’s rooftop terrace is a great place to take a break between visits, drink in hand.
Magical Realism: Imagining Natural Dis/order
Joan Jonas, Moving Off the Land II (video still), 2019 © Courtesy of the artist
#FLODown: Magical Realism: Imagining Natural Dis/orderat WIELS brings together over 30 artists—among them Joan Jonas, Otobong Nkanga, Saodat Ismailova, Marisa Merz, and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané—to reflect on ecological shifts and the fractured relationship between humanity and the planet. Drawing from the genre of magical realism, the exhibition moves fluidly between the scientific and the mythical, presenting works in painting, sound, video, and installation that explore everything from cosmic systems to urban decay. It invites viewers to imagine new ways of living that move away from systems based on exploitation and relentless resource consumption.
Date: 29 May - 28 September 2025. Location: WIELS (and off-site locations including ARGOS Centre for Audiovisual Arts), Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354, 1190 Forest, Brussels, Belgium. Price: 12 EUR. Book now
Berlinde De Bruyckere. Khorós
Berlinde De Bruyckere, Lost V, 2021–2022, 2022,horsehide, marble, textile, iron, epoxy. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
#FLODown: Berlinde De Bruyckere. Khorós is a major solo exhibition at Bozar that spans 25 years of the Belgian artist’s evocative work, exploring the raw dualities of the human condition—love and loss, desire and decay, beauty and suffering. Tailored to the architecture of Victor Horta’s Art Deco halls, this poetic, large-scale show places De Bruyckere’s visceral sculptures, drawings, photographs, and installations in dialogue with artistic influences such as Lucas Cranach, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Patti Smith, and contemporary collaborators. Inspired by the Greek concept of khorós, the exhibition becomes a chorus of interconnected voices and shared existential themes. Through materials like weathered blankets, animal hides, and rusted metal, De Bruyckere invites reflection on fragility, transformation, and the cycle of life and death.
Date: 21 February - 31 August 2025. Location: BOZAR, Rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium. Price: 18 EUR or 25 EUR for a combo ticket to see all the exhibitions. Book now
When We See Us
When We See Us, BOZAR. Image credit We Document Art
#FLODown: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting – When We See Us is a landmark exhibition celebrating 100 years of Black figurative painting from the 1920s to today. Curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, with Tandazani Dhlakama, the show brings together around 150 works by 120 artists from Africa and its global diaspora. Organised into six thematic sections—The Everyday, Joy & Revelry, Repose, Sensuality, Spirituality, and Triumph and Emancipation—the exhibition explores Black self-representation, identity, and lived experience through a range of artistic voices. Inspired by Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us, the title reframes the gaze, focusing on how Black communities see and depict themselves. Presented at Bozar and originally conceived by Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, the exhibition honours a rich and often overlooked legacy in the art historical canon, and serves as a powerful tribute to Kouoh’s visionary curatorial work.
Date: 14 March - 29 June 2025. Location: BOZAR, Rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium. Price: 18 EUR or 25 EUR for a combo ticket to see all the exhibitions. Book now
Timeless Gazes: From Pharaohs to the Present Day
Ghizlane Sahli, La Plume, le papier et le parfum , 2025, Silvia Cappellari, 49 wool lianas composed of plastic waste, embroidered with silk and gold threads, fragrance developed in collaboration with Maison Guerlain.
#FLODown: Timeless Gazes: From Pharaohs to the Present Day is a major exhibition at Villa Empain in Brussels, showcasing a unique dialogue between ancient Egyptian masterpieces and contemporary African art. Organised by the Boghossian Foundation in collaboration with the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, the exhibition features around 130 works from the renowned collection of Jean Claude Gandur, many of which are being shown in Belgium for the first time.Spanning more than 2,000 years of history, the exhibition includes remarkable bronzes, funerary objects, and a striking red granite bust of Ramses II. It explores how the human gaze has shaped concepts of identity, power, and culture throughout the ages. Contemporary works by over 40 artists from Africa and its diaspora—including Omar Ba, Youssef Nabil, and Ghizlane Sahli—engage in a powerful conversation with the past, connecting ancient traditions to pressing global issues of today.
Date: 10 April – 7 September 2025. Location: Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, 67 – 1050 Brussels. Price: 12 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Mitja Tušek & Bertille Bak: Wait and See
View of the show, Mitja Tušek & Bertille Bak – Wait and See, Centrale, 2025 © Philippe De Gobert
#FLODown: Curated by Tania Nasielski, Wait and See at Centrale brings together the work of painter Mitja Tusek and video artist Bertille Bak in a thought-provoking artistic conversation centred on perception, representation, and visual storytelling. Slovenian-born and Brussels-based, Tusek presents six series of paintings—some on view for the first time—alongside a video work. Referencing European art history from the Middle Ages to Ensor and Rorschach tests, his paintings shift between figuration and abstraction. Through materials that either absorb or reflect light, Tusek creates images that feel at once elusive and intensely present, prompting viewers to question how images are formed and interpreted. In response, French artist Bertille Bak—nominated for the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2023—contributes four videos grounded in lived experience and collective memory. Her work, marked by a playful yet critical tone, lifts the curtain on the constructed nature of imagery, offering a tender but incisive look at how stories are shaped. Together, their practices reflect on the instability of the image and the subtle interplay between reality, illusion, and artistic invention.
Date: 25 April – 15 September 2025. Location: Centrale for Contemporary Art, Place Sainte-Catherine 44, 1000 Brussels. Price: 8 -10 EUR/ Free under 18 Book now
Familiar Strangers: The Eastern Europeans from a Polish Perspective
Familiar Strangers: The Eastern Europeans from a Polish Perspective, Exhibition Views - photo by Jakub Celej, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
#FLODown: Familiar Strangers: The Eastern Europeans from a Polish Perspective is a timely exhibition exploring shifting identities, diasporas, and minority voices in Eastern Europe through the lens of contemporary Polish art. Curated by Joanna Warsza, it features over 40 works—including painting, sculpture, video, film, installation, and textiles—by 13 artists such as Natalia LL, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Assaf Gruber, and Jana Shostak, many shown in Belgium for the first time. The exhibition highlights the complex interplay between the local and the transcultural, the personal and political, reflecting how marginalised communities—Roma, Vietnamese, Belarusian, Ukrainian, and others—shape and challenge the idea of a culturally homogeneous region. With a call for a more inclusive and plural Europe, Familiar Strangers envisions a collective future rooted in mutual recognition, despite differences.
Date: 14 - 29 June 2025. Location: BOZAR, Rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium. Price: 18 EUR or 25 EUR for a combo ticket to see all the exhibitions. Book now
40 + years of STIJL
40 + years of STIJL / Fashion and Lace museum © detiffe.com
#FLODown: The exhibition 40+ Years of STIJL at the Fashion & Lace Museum in Brussels offers an in-depth exploration of the influential Belgian fashion boutique STIJL, founded by Sonja Noël in 1984. Curated by her daughter, fashion journalist Aya Noël, the exhibition showcases 68 silhouettes from 46 designers, highlighting STIJL’s pivotal role in promoting avant-garde Belgian fashion and its impact on the Dansaert district and beyond.
Date: 18 April 2025 – 11 January 2026. Location: Fashion & Lace Museum, Rue de la Violette 12, 1000 Brussels. Price: 10 EUR (with various discounts available). Book now
SKATEBOARD
Skateboard exhibition tour to the Design Museum Brussels, photographed by Twane Photography
#FLODown: If you missed the skateboard exhibition at the Design Museum in London last year, you’ll have another opportunity to catch it in Brussels as it goes on tour. Now showing at the Design Museum Brussels, this exhibition traces the skateboard’s evolution from a makeshift street pastime in 1950s California to a global design icon. Showcasing 90 rare boards alongside over 100 archival and graphic items, the exhibition explores the technical innovation, visual style, and subcultural energy that have defined skateboarding. It’s an immersive dive into the aesthetics, politics, and raw creativity of a culture that has always carved its own path.
Date: 5 April – 14 September 2025. Location: Design Museum Brussels, Place de Belgique 1, 1020 Brussels. Price: 8 - 10 EUR. Free with Brussels Card. Book now
Tellus Project: Caroline Le Méhauté & Isabella Soupart
Caroline Le Méhauté & Isabella Soupart, Installation & dance, Tellus Project, Centrale, 2025 © Philippe De Gobert
#FLODown: Tellus Project is a powerful installation and performance by visual artist Caroline Le Méhauté and choreographer Isabella Soupart, blending contemporary art with bio-art. Focusing on polluted soil—now affecting 75% of the planet—the work uses earth both as material and message. Through phytoremediation, a natural process where plants break down pollutants, the project becomes an act of healing. Within this living environment, dancers respond physically to the soil’s presence and condition, shaping and shifting it in an ongoing performance. Audiences are free to engage at their own pace, entering a space where bodies, matter, and meaning are constantly in motion.
Date: 10 April – 24 August 2025. Location: Centrale for Contemporary Art, Place Sainte-Catherine 44, 1000 Brussels. Price: 8 - 10 EUR / Free under 18 years old. Book now
Super Conceptual Pop
Super Conceptual Pop. Courtesy François Curlet, Galerie Air de Paris
#FLOLondon: Super Conceptual Pop at Fondation CAB is a group exhibition curated by Marjolaine Lévy that brings together 17 international artists, including Pierre Bismuth, Martin Creed, Jonathan Monk, and Stefan Brüggemann, to explore the intersection of conceptual art and pop culture. Drawing on Dadaist and conceptual traditions, the show infuses irony, humour, and commercial aesthetics into thought-provoking works that challenge art-world conventions. With its playful, tongue-in-cheek tone and nods to mass culture, the exhibition offers a fresh take on what conceptual art can be today.
Date: 1 April – 31 October 2025. Location: Fondation CAB Brussels, Rue Borrens 32–34, 1050 Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. Price: 3- 6 EUR. https://fondationcab.com
Looking Through Objects: Women in Contemporary Polish Design
The Fragility of Painting in the Age of Fast Food by Carles Gabarró, Can Framis Museum. Image credit MTotoe.
#FLODown: Looking Through Objects: Women in Contemporary Polish Design, on show at the Design Museum Brussels, presents the work of 16 leading Polish women designers who use materials not just to create form, but to explore questions of gender, narrative, and social engagement. From ceramics and textiles to furniture and conceptual pieces, the works reveal a design language rooted in reflection, resistance, and reinvention. Looking Through Objects offers a rare insight into a national design scene where the personal and political are deeply intertwined.
Date: 9 May – 28 September 2025. Location: Design Museum Brussels, Place de Belgique 1, 1020 Brussels. Price: 8 - 10 EUR. Free with Brussels Card. Book now
Paris, Brussels and Back: The Art Deco Period of the Baucher-Feron Couple
Paris, Brussels and Back: The Art Deco Period of the Baucher-Feron Couple
#FLODown: Art Deco was never just a style — it was a movement of elegance, ambition and modernity that shaped the early 20th century, and few embodied it more distinctively than René Baucher and Sylvie Feron. At Design Museum Brussels, this exhibition traces the creative dialogue between the French and Belgian capitals through the lens of the Baucher-Feron partnership. Known for their sophisticated interiors, bespoke furniture and decorative flair, the couple’s work speaks to a shared European modernism born of collaboration and innovation. With original furnishings, sketches and photographs, the exhibition presents a portrait of a moment when design shaped both space and society.
Date: 6 June – 2 November 2025.Location: Design Museum Brussels, Place de Belgique 1, 1020 Brussels. Price: 8 - 10 EUR. Free with Brussels Card. Book now
Saul Steinberg: The Americans
Saul Steinberg, The Americans - Main street - Small town (1958). Photo: Jelle Van Seghbroeck, © The Saul Steinberg Foundation SABAM Belgium, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels.
#FLODown: Currently on display at the Magritte Museum is the rare and remarkable exhibition Saul Steinberg: The Americans. It features three series of panels from Steinberg’s monumental 70-metre frieze, originally created for the 1958 American Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair. A witty and inventive satire on mid-century American life, the work is rarely exhibited due to its size and fragility—making this a unique opportunity to experience one of Steinberg’s most celebrated creations.
Beyond this special exhibition, the Magritte Museum itself is an essential destination. It houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of René Magritte’s surrealist works, from paintings to personal archives. The recently renovated galleries offer a fresh perspective, revealing the depth and playful mystery of Magritte’s art, and providing insight into one of Belgium’s greatest artists.
Date: 21 May – 19 October 2025 Location: Musée Magritte Museum Koningsplein, 2 1000 Brussels. Price: 10 EUR. Book now
For more on the best of the city’s cultural landmarks and events this summer, we encourage you to explore the official Visit Brussels website: visit.brussels
