Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

Comprising large-scale paintings, drawings and never previously exhibited journals, the works will occupy two first floor galleries of the museum in a parallel display to selected works from the permanent collection. The artist’s work is also brought into confrontation with The Death of Marat (1793) by Jacques-Louis David. In this gallery, viewers will be invited to contemplate the emotional tenor of the neoclassical and contemporary works, as well as their formal differences and shared points of connection.

Thomas Houseago lives and works in Los Angeles. He received a BA in 1994 from Saint Martin’s School of Art, London, studied at De Ateliers, Amsterdam (1994-1996) and in Brussels from 1995 to 2003. Speaking about his return to the Belgian capital for this exhibition, “What a strange, truly surreal experience to have the world shut down—slowed, tuned inwards—and confront its vulnerability. The cyclical nature of being brought from seclusion into the city of my youth, and now embraced with the support of its curators and museum, where I would spend countless hours as a young artist, represents an indescribable connection.”