Axel Vervoordt Gallery III

We’re pleased to share this book to offer a memory of what the past four years meant for the gallery and all our partners.

First and foremost, the artists whose work we were able to present at various opportunities, but also collectors, curators, critics, researchers, performers, enthusiasts, and art lovers. We’re grateful to the artists for allowing us to share their stories and creations within the gallery platform. Without their voices and works of art, the gallery’s existence is impossible.

Reflecting on the recent past, these years became a period of operating a newly relocated gallery space in Hong Kong, for resilience following the COVID-19 pandemic, for the voices of artists who joined our gallery or further underscored a decades-long collaboration, for depicting social issues through art. Some artists did so through community-based installations, others through participatory performances, by making paintings that echoed the ephemeral landscape, or by making interventions that question our perceptions of our worldly reflections.

Over the past four years, in collaboration with the artists, estates, and a wide range of other stakeholders, we have published extensive monographs on Raimund Girke, Angel Vergara, and Shiro Tsujimura, as well as publications on Jaffa Lam and Bosco Sodi. The book now in your hands is the third in an ongoing series, a new edition to a story being written. The first highlighted the start of the gallery; the second detailed the move to new locations in Hong Kong and Kanaal, the revitalised industrial spaces in Wijnegem. Past years have meant further exploration of what the spaces have to offer, including an exhibition in the space known as Karnak, a grid of robust round concrete columns; or a sculpture by George Rickey in the garden, following his solo exhibition.

This is all part of a diverse and inspiring arts community (from Antwerp, throughout Europe, Asia, and around the world) of which we are delighted to be a part. We look forward to future projects, alongside new exhibitions in our gallery spaces and contributions in museums, art houses, and public spaces. Recently, Renato Nicolodi, Kimsooja, Germaine Kruip, and Peter Buggenhout, realised sculptures in public areas, which can now excite, confront, or question walkers, expected or not. I would like to thank the team and all the staff members who made everything happen. All of this is possible only through cooperation. Many thanks to everyone, who provided logistics or photography, registration or conservation, writing or consulting, for the benefit of the artists and the stories they seek to tell.