Michaël Borremans brings his haunting vision back to France
by Ivica Mamedy
Michaël Borremans returns to France with a major solo exhibition, which is one of the most intriguing painting shows in Paris this summer. Titled French Painting, the exhibition presented at David Zwirner Paris until 22 July 2026, marking the celebrated Belgian artist’s first solo show in France in twenty years. Known for his mysterious and psychologically charged imagery, Borremans continues to captivate audiences with works that are as technically refined as they are emotionally unsettling.
Michaël Borremans in his studio, 2026, Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner. Photo by Alex Salinas.
The exhibition playfully references the rich tradition of French painting, yet Borremans is far from interested in simply paying tribute to the past. Instead, he reinterprets familiar genres such as portraiture and still life through a contemporary lens, creating images that feel both timeless and strangely disorienting. His paintings invite viewers into a world where beauty and unease coexist, where the familiar suddenly becomes uncanny, and where every image seems to conceal more than it reveals.
Michaël Borremans, French Painting, 2026 Oil on canvas © Michaël Borremans, Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner. Photo by Cedric Verhelst.
Among the new works are paintings that explore themes of innocence, desire, power, and vulnerability. Recurring motifs, including missiles and delicate floral arrangements, are transformed into symbols that balance attraction and threat. In one painting, a missile wrapped in a soft pink quilt appears simultaneously comforting and alarming, while another work depicting magnolia branches reflects on the fragile relationship between nature and humanity’s desire to control it. These striking contrasts are central to Borremans’s artistic language and contribute to the lingering sense of ambiguity that defines his work.
Portraiture also plays a significant role in French Painting. Borremans’s figures seem suspended between innocence and guilt, intimacy and estrangement. Their identities often remain elusive, encouraging viewers to question what they are seeing and how meaning is constructed. By blurring the boundaries between portrait and still life, the artist challenges traditional expectations and creates images that resist straightforward interpretation, rewarding slow and thoughtful looking.
Michaël Borremans’ studio. Ghent, Belgium, 2026. © Michaël Borremans, Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner. Photo by Cedric Verhelst.
Over the past two decades, Borremans has established himself as one of the most influential painters working today, with exhibitions at leading museums and institutions around the world. This Paris presentation offers a rare opportunity for French audiences to experience his latest work firsthand and to engage with an artist whose paintings continue to explore the complexities of contemporary life through the enduring language of art history. For anyone interested in painting, visual storytelling, or simply seeing something unexpected, French Painting is an exhibition not to be missed.
More information HERE.
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