Zeno X, an Antwerp-based gallery that worked to increase the visibility of well-known artists like Luc Tuymans and Jack Whitten, will shut down at the end of this year after 42 years in existence. Zeno X was established in 1981 by Frank Demaegd and Eliane Breynaert and quickly rose to prominence in the Belgian art world as a shelter for painters. What precipitated the shutdown was not totally known. The gallery said in a statement shared on social media that “a number of health issues have made the stress and pressure too much.”
Artists including N. Dash, Raoul De Keyser, Yun-Fei Ji, Martin Margiela, Jockum Nordström, and Patrick Van Caeckenbergh are now on its roster. Many of the artists that displayed there later won representation with major galleries. More than a dozen exhibitions of De Keyser’s austere abstractions have been held at Zeno X gallery; the late artist is currently represented by David Zwirner. As well as Michal Borremans, who has had seven exhibits with the gallery since 2003. Tuymans and Marlene Dumas, whose muted-toned figural paintings first debuted in solo exhibitions at Zeno X in the 1990s and later, before the artists became market phenomena.
In the 2010s, Whitten, an American painter who signed with Hauser & Wirth right before he passed away, held four solo exhibitions there. Some of his earliest solo performances in Europe were these. The video artist Stan Douglas and the sculptor Mark Manders, both of whom started holding solo exhibits at the gallery in the 1990s, are two examples of artists working in various mediums for whom Zeno X has nevertheless shown to be foresighted.
The gallery also once had a focus on architecture and installation, with architect Rem Koolhaas holding an exhibition there in 1984. According to Demaegd, Zeno X’s first guiding philosophy was “that the artworks had to be avant-garde.”
At Zeno X, individual exhibitions by Miriam Cahn, Anton Corbijn, Dirk Braeckman, and Mounira Al Solh were also shown. According to the founders’ statement, “Zeno X Gallery has had beautiful decades. “We look back on all the extraordinary exhibitions and the many opportunities to meet inspiring people from all over the world with great pride and gratitude.”
Source and Feature image: ARTnews
Pratiksha is an art enthusiast and writer.
