Kristof Santy presents new paintings and drawings at Sorry We're Closed in Brussels

KRISTOF SANTY
BOLERO
20 September - 24 October 2026
Sorry We’re Closed, Brussels

In September, the Brussels gallery Sorry We’re Closed is presenting BOLERO, a major new solo exhibition by Belgian artist Kristof Santy (b. 1987, Roeselare), unfolding across the gallery’s three floors.

Santy's second solo exhibition at the gallery brings together an entirely new body of work, including paintings, drawings and — for the first time — three-dimensional works on copper plates. A new publication accompanying the exhibition will further explore Santy’s evolving practice and recent developments.

The title BOLERO refers to Maurice Ravel’s iconic musical composition: a hypnotic and repetitive structure that slowly intensifies through rhythm, accumulation and variation until reaching an overwhelming climax. The reference is central to Santy’s approach to painting. Much like Ravel’s composition, Santy’s works are not primarily driven by narrative or subject matter, but by rhythm, repetition, structure, colour and formal relationships. Images unfold gradually through variations in pattern, scale, texture and composition.

Santy’s paintings often depict familiar subjects — flowers, dishes, interiors, tools, vehicles or fragments of everyday life — yet the works ultimately operate beyond representation. What appears immediately recognizable slowly transforms into something more enigmatic and emotionally charged. Through flattened perspectives, geometric constructions, saturated colours and subtle shifts in repetition, ordinary objects become monumental presences.

Rooted in folk traditions, anonymous popular painting and the history of Belgian modernism, Santy’s work balances naïveté and sophistication, directness and ambiguity. Echoes of Jean Brusselmans, Ensor, Joseph Willaert and Magritte resonate in his work, alongside affinities with Giorgio de Chirico or Konrad Klapheck. Yet for Santy, it is never about reference or nostalgia, but about painting as a living space for thought.

The exhibition also reflects a central aspect of Santy’s practice: the artist’s fascination with overlooked forms, forgotten objects and the poetry of the everyday. Santy approaches painting not as a vehicle for spectacle or commentary, but as a sustained act of attention. The artist has a deep fascination for modest things — ceramic chimney fragments, amateur paintings, flea market objects, devotional sculptures — elements that reappear transformed within his visual universe.

This attention to the ordinary is inseparable from the pleasure of painting itself. Santy builds his images slowly, layer by layer, allowing rhythm, colour and form to generate meaning beyond the depicted subject. His works oscillate between careful virtuosity and a deliberately fragile, almost hesitant naïveté. In this way, painting becomes less about describing reality and more about constructing its own autonomous reality.

Before dedicating himself fully to art, Santy worked in a factory and developed his artistic language largely through self-study. Since his international breakthrough in 2021, he has rapidly emerged as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Belgian painting. His work has recently been presented in exhibitions including Painting after Painting at S.M.A.K. Ghent, F**klore at ABBY Kortrijk, Trans Europa Express at Kunsthaus NRW Aachen and Animalia at the Heidi Horten Collection in Vienna, alongside works by artists such as Picasso, Warhol, George Condo and Damien Hirst.

Selection of images

Press contact
Club Paradis
Micha Pycke
+32 (0)486 680 070
micha@clubparadis.be

Kristof Santy presents new paintings and drawings at Sorry We're Closed in Brussels

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