de boer (Antwerpen) is pleased to present an exhibition that unfolds as a spatial conversation between contemporary artistic practice and iconic design history. Housed in the architectural landmark De Zonnewijzer— a 1950s modernist building by celebrated Belgian architect Léon Stynen—the exhibition offers a series of intimate vignettes that pair artworks by de boer gallery’s international roster of contemporary artists with carefully selected pieces of vintage mid-century furniture curated by Loic Driesen of Antwerp-based design studio Studio Loca.
This site-specific presentation returns the space to its original narrative: the gallery, located on the ground floor of De Zonnewijzer, once served as a modern furniture showroom in the mid-1950s. Re-engaging with that lineage, the exhibition bridges past and present, function and form, by situating cutting-edge contemporary works within a historic framework of design that once defined European modern domesticity.
Through a sequence of thoughtfully constructed living environments, the exhibition invites viewers to reconsider the boundaries between art and design, the gallery and the home. Artists represented include Rema Ghuloum, Alex McQuilkin, Sara Carter, Brad Phillps, Sam Druant, and Amir Zaki, whose works resonate materially and conceptually with the selected furniture pieces—ranging from Belgian modernist seating to sculptural lighting and low-slung cabinetry. Each pairing offers a subtle conversation between past and present: playful tensions, formal echoes, and cultural intersections emerge in the interplay between objects. The building itself becomes a silent collaborator. De Zonnewijzer, named after the sundial, is one of Stynen’s most iconic post-war achievements—celebrated for its light-filled transparency and rhythmic structural grid.
The exhibition mines that history while activating the space anew, presenting a lived-in architecture of ideas, memory, and reimagined modernity. This project underscores de boer gallery’s commitment to interdisciplinary dialogue and recontextualized exhibition-making, while honoring the hidden histories of its own space.
