main partner
10—13.12.26 Antwerp Expo
main partner
The Art Antwerp Acquisition Prize supports a selected museum with an acquisition budget of up to €10,000 to purchase one or more artworks presented by participating galleries at the fair.
This initiative not only helps an artist realize the ambition of having their work enter a major museum collection, but also enables the representing gallery to make a significant sale, while enriching the collection of one of Antwerp’s leading cultural institutions.
The prize is made possible thanks to the support of Delen Private Bank.
Director of Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle
Goedele Bartholomeeusen is an art historian and director of Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Belgium. She began her career in the international commercial art world, working in Italy and New York before moving into the institutional sector. Her practice focuses on the intersection of contemporary art, cultural heritage, architecture and landscape, developing exhibitions and long-term projects that connect artistic production, research and public engagement. She is committed to positioning museums as spaces where historical collections and contemporary artistic practices inform and challenge one another.
Photo portrait by © Charlie De Keersmaecker
Head of Collections & Research at M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp.
Jan De Vree is an art historian and has served as Head of Collections and Research at the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA) since 2010. Since joining the museum, he has held various positions, including collection manager and researcher.
He earned a master’s degree in Art History and Musicology from Ghent University and a master’s degree in Theater Studies from the University of Antwerp. In addition to his work for the M HKA, he has published and spoken on contemporary art and visual poetry and has collaborated on various exhibition projects both in Belgium and abroad.
His research focuses on the interplay between poetry, visual art, and social engagement, with a particular emphasis on concrete, visual, and sound poetry from the 1960s and 1970s.
Associate Director and Head of Exhibitions
Nav Haq is Associate Director at M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp – where he leads the artistic programme, and is an editor at Afterall Journal. He is curator for the upcomng Lahore Biennale 04. He previously held curatorial positions at Gasworks, London, and Arnolfini, Bristol, and has organised many significant monographic exhibitions with artists including Otobong Nkanga, Shilpa Gupta, Haegue Yang, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin and Joseph Beuys. amongst many others. Haq was curator of the Göteborg International Biennial of Contemporary Art 2017 and Contour Biennial 2007, Mechelen, and most recently was part of the curator team for the itinerant Kyiv Biennial 2025 exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art Warsaw and M HKA. At M HKA he also curated the major group exhibition Don’t You Know Who I Am? Art After Identity Politics (2014), the interdisciplinary exhibitions Energy Flash – The Rave Movement (2016) and MONOCULTURE – A Recent History (2020), and most recently The Geopolitics of Infrastructure – Contemporary Perspectives (2025). In 2012, he was recipient of the Independent Vision Award for Curatorial Achievement, awarded by Independent Curators International, New York.
Head of Exhibitions and Curator, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg
Stilbé Schroeder (b. 1985, Luxembourg) joined Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain as exhibition coordinator in 2015. In 2017 and 2019, she was assistant curator of the Luxembourg Pavilion at the International Art Exhibitions of La Biennale di Venezia. Since 2023, she has been Head of exhibitions and curator, participating in the reflections and the development of Casino Luxembourg’s exhibition program. A facilitator of some sort, she engages in curatorial complicities with the artists she invites, maintains close contact, and connects deeply to their processes and exhibition-making. She is currently the curator of La Merde by Aline Bouvy representing the Luxembourg Pavilion at la Biennale di Venezia.
Photo portrait by © Ernest Thiesmeier
Statement by M HKA Regarding its Acquisition Policy
“M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp – is open to a wide range of artistic practices, disciplines and media that can contribute to the further development of its collection. There are no substantive restrictions regarding geographic or cultural context. Preference is given to works that open up new perspectives on art, culture and society and that can form meaningful connections with existing collections, lines of research and curatorial narratives within the museum.
The M HKA is a leading museum for contemporary art and visual culture. Deeply rooted in the Antwerp avant-garde yet strongly connected to the international scene, it has built upon the pioneering role of the International Cultural Center (ICC), Belgium’s first public institution for contemporary art.
The collection encompasses regional and international contemporary art from the avant-garde of the 1960s to the present day and evolves in its dialogue with the multipolar world of today. In doing so, M HKA focuses on the interplay between local and international art histories and on the many perspectives that characterise the contemporary world.
Research is an essential part of the museum’s operations. Through its collection, research, and the Center for Art Archives Flanders (CKV), the M HKA contributes to documenting, studying, and making contemporary art and its history accessible.
The selected artwork will be added to M HKA’s collection and presented as part of an exhibition highlighting the fortieth annniversary of M HKA . This exhibition will run from April 4 to October 17, 2027.”
Art Antwerp is delighted to announce that the Art Antwerp Acquisition Prize has been awarded to Laure Prouvost for her work Sweaty Cuddle (2025), presented at the booth of Galerie Nathalie Obadia.
Created in oil on mirror, Sweaty Cuddle (135 × 80 cm) embodies Prouvost’s distinctive blend of intimacy, playfulness, and layered visual language. Its reflective surface invites viewers to enter the work, blurring the boundaries between image and reality, presence and perception.
This acquisition underscores the fair’s commitment to supporting outstanding contemporary artistic practices and enriching public collections with innovative works by leading international artists.
Sweaty Cuddle will join the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) and was on view during the fair at Galerie Nathalie Obadia’s booth.