The 5 most inspiring art galleries in Antwerp

Two New Yorkers and a Belgian art historian have established a small gallery in Antwerp’s Zuid district. Newchild exhibits works by innovative young and established artists in two minimalist rooms designed by the gallery’s cofounder Chandler Noah. The back room looks out on a tiny meditation garden.

The daughter of an Antwerp gallery owner, Sofie van de Velde knows the contemporary art scene intimately. Her second gallery occupies a large white interior in the emerging Nieuw Zuid neighbourhood. Here she exhibits her pick of international artists along with young Antwerp artists such as Pieter Jennes.

Formerly based in a small town house, Tim van Laere moved in 2019 into a striking new gallery in the Nieuw Zuid district. Designed by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, the gallery is a brutal concrete building set next to the river with two gallery rooms lit by soft northern light.

Launched in 2004 in a condemned building in the docklands, it moved to an industrial building, and resettled a third time in a former laundry. Then in 2021 it found a new home in an abandoned 19th-century church. Whatever the location, Extra City stages some of the city’s most exciting shows featuring young and emerging international artists.

Gallery owner Roger Szmulewicz devotes his striking white exhibition space to Belgian and international photography. Ranked as one of the ten best photo galleries in the world, it exhibits classic American photographers as well as contemporary European, Japanese and African photographers. Also check out Fifty One Two gallery around the corner.