Experience

ANTWERP | Antony Gormley’s ‘Geestgrond’ opens at KMSKA as the most comprehensive solo exhibition of the artist in Europe

Posted by Timothy on

On Saturday 23 May 2026, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, KMSKA) will open ‘Antony Gormley. Geestgrond‘, the largest and most comprehensive solo exhibition of the legendary British artist ever staged on the European mainland. 

Running until 20 September 2026, this landmark exhibition has been created especially for the KMSKA and is curated by the internationally renowned Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, former artistic director of dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, in Hesse, in Germany.

A pioneering artist of his generation

For more than fifty years, Antony Gormley has captivated British and international audiences alike with his sculptures, installations, and drawings. Born in 1950, the now 75-year-old artist has built a remarkable career that includes exhibitions at prestigious venues such as the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Beyond museum walls, Gormley is celebrated for his impactful public artworks, including the monumental ‘Angel of the North‘ (1998) in Gateshead, Northern England, and ‘Exposure‘ (2010) in Lelystad, the Netherlands. 

At the heart of his acclaimed practice is the human being, with Gormley using both minimal and powerful forms and materials ranging from wood to lead to explore how the body relates to nature and space. As the artist himself states, “My work asks the questions: what can sculpture do and what does it feel like to be alive?”

An exhibition that extends beyond museum walls

This search for humanity’s place in the world forms the starting point for Geestgrond. The exhibition is the fruit of a unique collaboration between Gormley and Christov-Bakargiev, who has engaged the artist’s oeuvre in a profound dialogue with the KMSKA’s own collection and the architecture of its beautifully renovated building. 

Significantly, for the first time since the museum’s reopening in 2022, all of the KMSKA’s modern galleries are being used as exhibition space, allowing the exhibition to unfold across an expansive route that extends beyond the museum walls to the roof, Museumplein, and even the Antwerp Scheldt Quays further afield.

Visitors to ‘Geestgrond’ will discover more than 100 works spanning Gormley’s career, from early sketches and notebooks to major sculptures and enterable installations. 

The exhibition’s title, ‘Geestgrond’, carries multiple layers of meaning. It refers to the fertile, sandy soil that formed in the Low Countries during the Ice Age, while simultaneously connecting the spiritual and the material, the human and the earthly. 

Rather than functioning as a traditional retrospective, ‘Geestgrond’ places Gormley’s work in active conversation with pieces from the museum’s collection by artists including James Ensor, Auguste Rodin, and Julio González. 

As in Gormley’s own practice, humans and their environment, body and consciousness are presented as inseparable, with the exhibition exploring the deep connection between our thoughts and feelings and the physical world.

A continuous spatial experience

The architecture of the KMSKA itself becomes an integral part of the exhibition, working alongside the artworks to form a continuous spatial experience. Visitors will make their way through the museum amongst Gormley’s sculptures, not as mere spectators but as active participants, where their lived experience becomes part of the work itself. 

The museum’s historic spaces provide a striking backdrop for Gormley’s contemporary explorations, creating a dynamic interplay between old and new.

The heart of the exhibition

One of the exhibition’s undoubted highlights is ‘The Heart‘, which curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev describes as the core of the exhibition and an intimate Wunderkammer. 

This special space draws visitors closer to Gormley’s artistic process, featuring an exceptional presentation of early works, sketches, notebooks, drawings, photographs, books, raw materials, and experiments that reveal the very essence of his creativity. It offers a rare glimpse into the artist’s thinking and working methods, providing insight into how his ideas develop from initial concept to finished artwork.

The culmination in ‘Cave’

The itinerary culminates in the monumental ‘Cave‘ (2019), a body also conceived as a building, constructed from vast sheets of steel that occupies an entire gallery space. This walk-in installation invites visitors to step inside the work, creating an immersive experience that Christov-Bakargiev notes “immediately raises the question of where art is precisely located: not only in the object itself, but in the experience of the viewer.” 

The work challenges traditional notions of art as something to be merely observed, instead emphasizing the physical and emotional engagement of the audience.

A statement of ambition

This ambitious project underscores the KMSKA’s commitment to presenting world-class contemporary art. 

Luk Lemmens (N-VA), chairman of the KMSKA, states, “This collaboration with a world-class contemporary artist underlines the ambition of the KMSKA. For the first time since its reopening in 2022, the modern galleries will be used entirely as exhibition space. With this project, we are not only exploring the boundaries of the museum building itself, but also venturing into public space.”

Carmen Willems, general director of KMSKA, adds, “Never before has Antony Gormley’s work been shown in such an ambitious and extensive way on the European mainland. With ‘Geestgrond’, the KMSKA brings his oeuvre to Antwerp in an exhibition project that elevates the museum experience to the highest level. The inspiring dialogue with contemporary sculpture sheds new light on the collection. At the same time, this project underlines the DNA of the museum: a place where art and visitors actively meet.”

Antony Gormley’s ‘Geestgrond’ thus represents not only a major milestone in the artist’s career but also a bold statement of intent from the KMSKA. 

By bringing together Gormley’s profound explorations of the human condition with its own historic collection, the museum offers visitors a unique opportunity to experience art in a way that is both intellectually stimulating and deeply personal. 

In a world where the boundaries between art, architecture, and the viewer are increasingly blurred, ‘Geestgrond’ stands as a testament to the power of sculpture to ask fundamental questions about what it means to be human.

Art and museums in Antwerp

Leave a Reply

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. (Find out more about Webmentions.)