Art Antwerp 2024: End of Fair Report  

The Boutique Fair reports very strong sales and welcomed 15.640 visitors, exceeding last year's visitor numbers with 15%

Art Antwerp 2024 (on view from 12 to 15 December 2024 at Antwerp Expo) has firmly established itself on the European art fair circuit. With a spirit of discovery and a welcoming ambiance, enhanced by its strategic location in a city celebrated for its avant-garde culture, this fourth edition of Art Antwerp exceeded expectations in terms of both visitor numbers and sales.

The fair reaffirmed its reputation as a boutique fair, offering a warm, engaging, and festive atmosphere. It showcased a carefully curated mix of local and international programming, delivering a truly personalized experience for participants and visitors alike. This tailored approach attracted an impressive 15,640 visitors—a 15% increase from last year’s 13,650—10% of whom traveled from abroad, highlighting the fair's growing international appeal.

“Art Antwerp surpassed all our expectations this year. After a slower art market over the past few months, we’re truly grateful for the boost in sales this edition brought—just in time for the year-end festivities. The positive energy was palpable, with collectors, visitors and gallerists sharing in the upbeat atmosphere.
Even for well-established Antwerp-based galleries, the fair introduced a fresh audience. While it’s always a pleasure to see galleries engage with the familiar collector scene, we’re particularly excited to notice new relationships forming and to witness the arising scene of new collectors.”
— Nele Verhaeren, Director of Art Antwerp

The fair also welcomed more than 45 national and international museum and collector groups, including those from The Cultivist, TheMerode, The Art Connector, Young Collectors Circle, The Art Society, Vrienden v/h S.M.A.K., Copper & Light, Amis du Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, M HKArt Circle, The Nine, WE Club, and many others.

Collectors highly appreciated the size of the fair, the ambiance, the high number of solo and duo presentations (27 for 70 galleries) and the unique mix of established artists and emerging talent across this 'boutique fair'.

“The boutique art fair Art Antwerp is a great way to close the Belgian art season. Well organised and offering a great insight into the Belgian and International art scene. A very convivial art fair and a nice get together of art lovers.”
— Philippe Leeman, Antwerp art collector

“As a modest collector, but crazily passionate who is enjoying a serious case of addiction to art, I am proud to be a small part of Art Antwerp. As a collector I travel around the world and follow the art scene extensively and I am always amazed to see the quality of Antwerp art scene which is in my modest opinion a world player with top notch galleries and talented (young) artists. Antwerp has always been a very important cross point in art history and we are about to take the world again. I am already excited to enjoy the next year’s edition, so my advise, to everybody: be an ambassador and bring a friend with you.”
— Ali Tahmaseb, Antwerp art collector

The fair also benefited from and contributed to the attractiveness of the Antwerp art scene, with numerous exhibitions in partner museums such as KMSKA, FOMU, MoMU, M HKA… and Antwerp based galleries. 

With the generous support of its main partners for 2024, Delen Private Bank and Bank Van Breda, Art Antwerp has cemented its role in the city of Antwerp as a platform for international contemporary art, firmly positioned at the heart of the city's flourishing art scene. 

This fourth edition of Art Antwerp could also count on the support of the City of Antwerp and visit.flanders.

Sales Reports 

KETELEER GALLERY (Antwerp) reports to be completely amazed by what they called the “quite spectacular” fourth edition of Art Antwerp. They sold over 50 works to private and corporate collections in Belgium and abroad, among which AkzoNobel.
PLUS-ONE Gallery (Antwerp) sold out their solo booth with Dittmar Viane on the opening day. They have also sold 80% of their group presentation with Nelleke Cloosterman, József Csató, Sergio De Beukelaar, Tatjana Gerhard, Ritsart Gobyn, Frederik Heyman, Bram Kinsbergen, Laurens Legiers, Florian Tomballe, Lily Van der Stocker, Victor Verhelst, and Filip Vervaet. All works are going to private collections from both existing and new clients.
Gallery Sofie Van De Velde (Antwerp) reported that 60% of the sales went to new clients.
GoMulan Gallery (Amsterdam) sold out their booth with Dion Rosina and Susanne Khalil Yusef. One of the works has been sold to the sculpture garden of De Nederlandsche Bank.
Harlesden High Street (New York, London) and Season 4 Episode 6 (London), winners of the Best Booth Prize — a new prize supported by Delen Private Bank and Bank Van Breda —, sold the majority of the booth on the first day, including an important institutional sale.
KANT Gallery (Copenhagen) sold out their booth with Joost Vandebrug. All the works are going to private collections in Belgium, France and The Netherlands.
Gallery FIFTY ONE (Antwerp) sold over 20 works from their solo presentation with Bruno V. Roels to a mix of new and existing clients in Belgium.
Mulier Mulier (Brussels, Knokke) sold 16 works from artists ranging from very established (such as Art & Language) to very young and upcoming (such as Alina Zamanova). The works are going to private collections in Belgium and abroad, among others a very important collection in Amsterdam.
For Albert Baronian (Brussels), who is closing his gallery next week, this fair participation was his last one. He mentions the sentimental and symbolic importance for him to finish his career at Art Antwerp, where he has made strong sales. He defines Art Antwerp as the future of art fairs, it being a local community-oriented event.
Stigter Van Doesburg (Amsterdam) is very satisfied with their participation, mentioning 9 sales of works by Bobbi Essers, Melissa Gordon, and Thijs Kauffmann. All the works are going to Belgian private collections that are new contacts for the gallery.
Galerie Lelong & Co. (Paris, New York) is reporting multiple sales for many of their artists, including Hyunsun Jeon, David Nash, Barthélémy Toguo, Marion Verboom, Jan Voss, and Guy Yanai. The gallery is happy to have sold to both existing and new clients from Belgium, Luxembourg and and The Netherlands.
Richard Saltoun Gallery (London, New York, Rome) is very happy with their first participation at Art Antwerp, as they sold very well the works of their solo artist Ria Verhaeghe to many local collectors that are new to the gallery and that are different from the public they are used to meeting at Art Brussels.
Maurice Verbaet Gallery (Knokke) is happy to report strong sales of mainly smaller sized art works to private Belgian and predominantly new collections. They were impressed by the non-stop influx of people at their stand and noticed a lot of interest for the early works of Pol Mara as well as for the work of Guy Vandenbranden and Denmark.

Notes to Editors  

Visitor Figures 2024: 15.640 (+15% compared to 2023)
The dates of next year’s fair have been announced as 11 – 14 December 2025 at Antwerp Expo 
Download high-res installation shots of the fair here
The 41^th edition of Art Brussels will take place from 24 - 27 April 2025 at Brussels Expo.  
More info on Art Brussels here and on Art Antwerp here