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Wouters Gallery, Boulevard d'Anvers 49, Brussels (2026)

01/06/2026

Jean Katambayi Mukendi : RATIO

at M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium

Saturday June 6, 2.30 - 5pm

Discover RATIO during an afternoon with a guided tour, a lecture by Sandrine Colard and the launch of Circuits, Jean Katambayi Mukendi’s first monograph, co–edited by Leuven University Press, KW and M HKA.

In RATIO, Jean Katambayi Mukendi explores the dualities that shape our world: the natural and the artificial, growth and destruction, desired and discarded materials, and the relationship between resources and power. Conceived for IN SITU, the exhibition brings together newly produced drawings, paintings, and large-scale sculptures.

RATIO is co-produced with KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany, and marks the artist’s first solo museum presentation. At M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp RATIO will be presented for its second iteration in summer 2026 (official opening Thursday June 25).

The exhibition is accompanied by Circuits, the artist’s first comprehensive monograph, published by Leuven University Press in partnership with the Contemporary Art Committee KU Leuven, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, and M HKA.

Curators: Anne-Claire Schmitz, Emma Enderby & Linda Franken

19/05/2026

‘While Braga and Weber approach material as a critical form of memory, Ryo Kinosh*ta rethinks the very conditions of its appearance. In the works presented, the canvas is worked from within — perforat- ed, sewn, stratified — revealing an active textile structure.
Fragmented motifs oscillate between figuration and ornament: silhouettes, objects, and organic forms drift across systems of repetition and variation. Beneath an apparently decorative dimension unfolds a more ambiguous register, where a latent violence intermittently surfaces, in tension with the softness and almost melodic rhythm of the whole.
This instability is heightened by the treatment of the canvas as a permeable membrane, exposing its in- terstices and layered construction. Long regarded as a neutral, even untouchable support, the canvas is here opened up and reworked its very substance, becoming a space of circulation in which the visible emerges as much from what is revealed as from what recedes. (…)’

19/05/2026

‘In the work of Elen Braga and Noemi Weber, this engagement with material is rooted in a sustained reflection on formal and symbolic legacies shaped by patriarchal and Western structures of domina- tion. The hand-tufted tapestry fragments by Braga, produced as part of Elen ou Hubris (2020), depict a self-portrait of the artist lifting a weight. Installed in 2020 on the Cinquantenaire Arch in Brussels, the monumental 120 m2 work entered into a critical dialogue with an architectural structure marked by colonial history1. In the works presented here, the artist’s figure fragments, repeats, and condenses: a stylized body, on the verge of abstraction, emerges from the textile surface. The softness of the wool contrasts with the symbolic density of the work, where questions of power, representation, and monu- mentality are both invoked and displaced. (…)’

19/05/2026

´Noemi Weber’s paintings extend this inquiry within a space held in suspension between abstraction and figuration. With ´Calm, The Stage is Never Empty’ [Renaissance State of Mind\ing – Inhabitation] (2025), Weber shifts the question of what constitutes a monumental mode of representation onto the color itself. She understands paintings as storages informed by the legacy of the central perspective, transporting political implications and shaping perception as well as visual knowledge until today. The large quad- riptych, composed of four vertical panels in earthy brown tones, draws the gaze into the matte density of its surface.
Made from acrylic paint, cellulose, and marble powder, the canvas absorbs light rather than reflecting it, and in doing so, invokes the charged symbolism of brown: a color long denied positive connotations within Western art history, where Black people have been rarely represented outside narratives of ra- cial domination. The title carries a quiet irony: the stage is never empty, for the color itself bears an en- tire history. By reworking conventions such as the monochrome and monumental scale, Weber expos- es the power structures embedded within painting, while opening it toward processes of recomposition and the circulation of meaning. (…)’

excerpt of exhibition text by Oriane Durand

07/05/2026

RP • Mit seine lichtlosen „Afrolampes“ wirft der Künstler Jean Katambayi Mukendi einen Blick auf die Kolonialgeschichte der Demokratischen Republik Kongo (DRK), deren Folgen immer noch spürbar sind: Die Bodenschätze der DRK sind essenziell für globale Technologieinfrastrukturen, der lokale Alltag ist jedoch von Energiemangel geprägt. Als Symbol der Elektrifizierung führt die Glühbirne zu den Anfängen des Kolonialismus und der Rohstoffextraktion im Land: Kautschuk, Uran, Coltan – die Ausbeutung des Kongo lieferte stets Ressourcen für Krieg und Industrialisierung weltweit.

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Video: Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Ausstellungsansicht in „… damit das Geräusch des Krieges nachlässt, sein Gedröhn“, Courtesy of the artist, © , Foto:
Foto 1: Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Escalation (Afrolampe), 2024, private collection, Brussels
Foto 2: Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Afrolampe Ndjekele (afroled), 2024, Courtesy of the artist and Wouters Gallery
Foto 3: Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Intersection (Afrolampe), 2025, Courtesy of the artist, © , Foto:

07/05/2026

RP • Two ink on paper drawings from the ongoing series ‘Afrolampes’ by Jean Katambayi Mukendi (*1974 in Lubumbashi, Congo) are fantastic projections into the unlit interior of light bulbs. While the bulbs are supposed to bring electrical light - the paradigm of global ‚progress‘ since enlightenment - they are often subject to power cuts in the artist’s home country: a paradox considering the Congo supplies the whole world with conductive materials for electrical devices.
The ‚Afrolampes’ can be read as a comment on unequal global access to technology - but at the same time they resist and are also a projection surface for dreams and utopias, defending the innovation potential that can be drawn from the dark.

Courtesy the artist and .brussels

Die Andere Seite der Nacht
15 Feb - 17 May 2026
Dortmunder Kunstverein
Curator .seubert
Curatorial assistant .schroeer
Head of installation
Photos

07/05/2026

RP • Jean Katambayi Mukendi’s exhibition ‘RATIO’ is on view at KW until 10.05.26! 🚲

“A ratio is a relationship between two elements. Today, many kinds of relationships are at play. We can speak of the North-South relationship, the economic relationship, the balance of power, but also, possibly, of support—the relationship of backing or care.” – Jean Katambayi Mukendi

The sculptures, paintings, and drawings featured in ‘RATIO’, the first exhibition by the artist in Germany, were created during a residency at KW in 2025, using materials gathered from various locations in Berlin, such as KW’s storage and the city’s recycling yards.

Jean Katambayi Mukendi
‘RATIO’
on view until 10.05.26

Only a few days left!

_____________________

Images: Installation view of the exhibition ‘Jean Katambayi Mukendi – RATIO’ at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2026. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Frank Sperling.

04/05/2026

RP • From 9 May 2026, to coincide with the opening of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, one of China’s most prominent abstractionists, the Shanghai-based artist Ding Yi (), presents a major presentation ‘Cosmotechnics: Ding Yi as a Planetary Code’ at Fondazione Querini Stampalia ().

Curated by Alfredo Cramerotti () and Auronda Scalera (), the exhibition brings together new and historic works that trace the evolution of Ding Yi’s language, alongside a series of stone steles that anchor the exhibition as a place of reflection and ritual, recalling ancient sites across China and Europe.

Titled ‘Cosmotechnics’ – a concept borrowed from philosopher Yuk Hui – the presentation transforms the Area Scarpa into a contemplative forest of images, the works operating like a planetary code with their placement creating a meandering path reminiscent of traditional Chinese gardens.

The exhibition is presented by the Fondazione Querini Stampalia with the support of Lisson Gallery and ShanghART Gallery.

🗓️ 9 May – 22 November 2026

📍Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy

🔗 Explore at the link in bio.

Image 1–7: ‘Appearance of Crosses’ works for ‘Cosmotechnics: Ding Yi as a Planetary Code’ © Ding Yi. Courtesy Lisson Gallery and ShanghART Gallery

Image 8: Installation view of ‘Ding Yi: Between Prediction and Retrospection’ by at Mostyn Gallery, 2025. Courtesy Mostyn Gallery

Image 9: Installation view of ‘Ding Yi: The Winding Path’ at Contemporary Gallery Kunming, 2025. Courtesy Contemporary Gallery Kunming

Image 10: Installation view of ‘Ding Yi: Between Prediction and Retrospection’ at Chaˆteau La Coste, 2024. Courtesy Chaˆteau La Coste

04/05/2026

RP • NEW! In the latest episode of , Artist Ding Yi shows us around his riverfront Shanghai studio, where he muses on a 40-year career, what it’s like to show in Venice, and the endurance of motifs 🖼️⁠
⁠
In 1988, while studying at Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, artist Ding Yi first adopted the cross as a motif, either in the form of a ‘+’ or ‘x’ symbol⁠
⁠
This intentional departure from representational painting was a manifesto, a declaration of his dedication to abstraction, which has spanned decades to the present day⁠
⁠
This new profile of Ding Yi, made in collaboration with and , captures him on the eve of his exhibition, Cosmotechnics, at the in Venice⁠
⁠
Tap the link in bio to watch the full film on NOWNESS 🎥⁠
⁠
Starring ⁠
Director ⁠
Producer ⁠
Production Company ⁠
Director of Photography ⁠
Assistant Director ⁠
First Assistant Camera Wang Zhang⁠
Second Assistant Camera Xi Kang⁠
Camera Loader Bo Hu, Peng Zhou⁠
Gaffer Cong Xu⁠
Lighting Assistants Bing Xu, Wei Hu, Jian Guo⁠
Sound Recordist ⁠
Editor & Sound Mixer ⁠
Composer ⁠
Colorist ⁠
Curators

04/05/2026

RP • : Ding Yi (2026) dir. Zhuolan⁠
⁠
Artist Ding Yi shows us around his riverfront Shanghai studio in an exploration of his practice spanning a 40-year career ⁠
⁠
Made in collaboration with and , this new profile of Ding Yi captures him on the eve of his exhibition, Cosmotechnics, at the in Venice⁠
⁠
Tap the link in bio to watch the full film on NOWNESS 🎥⁠
⁠
Starring ⁠
Director ⁠
Producer ⁠
Production Company ⁠
Director of Photography ⁠
Assistant Director ⁠
First Assistant Camera Wang Zhang⁠
Second Assistant Camera Xi Kang⁠
Camera Loader Bo Hu, Peng Zhou⁠
Gaffer Cong Xu⁠
Lighting Assistants Bing Xu, Wei Hu, Jian Guo⁠
Sound Recordist ⁠
Editor & Sound Mixer ⁠
Composer ⁠
Colorist ⁠

Curators

Wouters Gallery

01/06/2026

19/05/2026

19/05/2026

19/05/2026

07/05/2026

07/05/2026

07/05/2026

04/05/2026

04/05/2026

04/05/2026

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