Luc Tuymans and the exhibition presence in 2026
Published on 08/24/2026 at 14:04 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Luc Tuymans stands in 2026 with several institutional and gallery exhibitions that underline his long-term relevance in contemporary painting. His monumental wall work at Z33 in Hasselt and the recent large-scale show The Fruit Basket at David Zwirner Los Angeles exemplify how his practice occupies both museum architecture and white-cube space.
Group show presence in Hasselt
The exhibition Before Our Eyes at Z33 in Hasselt includes Luc Tuymans among a group of eleven artists working with images of conflict, memory and visibility. Running from March 29 to August 23, 2026, the show positions Tuymans alongside Marlene Dumas, Mohammed Sami and others in a discursive, image-focused context.
According to the curatorial description, Tuymans contributes a monumental wall painting based on an image whose origin and meaning remain deliberately opaque. This large-scale work extends his familiar interest in mediated images into a format that fully occupies the architecture of Z33’s gallery spaces.
Recent solo show in Los Angeles
Earlier in the year, David Zwirner’s Los Angeles space presented Tuymans’s solo exhibition The Fruit Basket, on view from February 24 to April 4, 2026. The show marked his first solo presentation in Los Angeles and brought together new paintings shaped by what the gallery describes as an American atmosphere of fracture.
The centerpiece, the nine-part painting The Fruit Basket (2025), spans roughly 16 by 23 feet and translates an iPhone photograph of fermenting fruit projected on a screen into a fragmented painted grid. Works such as Illumination (2024–2025), Hollow (2025), The Maggot (2025) and Migrants (2025) connect smartphone imagery, historical references and news images in Tuymans’s characteristic muted palette.
More news and background on Luc Tuymans
For further coverage of Luc Tuymans, including exhibitions, market reports and institutional projects, the AD HOC NEWS archive offers additional context and developments.
Large-scale work in Manifesta 16 Ruhr
Beyond Belgium and the United States, Tuymans is part of Manifesta 16 Ruhr, where his work is installed in Christ-König Church in Bochum. There he presents printed curtains based on images from Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda film Triumph of the Will, digitally remastered so the Nazi red flags appear blue.
This intervention, described in David Zwirner’s project note, confronts the church architecture with transformed political imagery. It continues Tuymans’s interest in how historical violence and ideological staging persist in contemporary visual culture while altering the color-coded symbolism of power.
How the artist works with images
Tuymans is known for small to mid-scale, often muted paintings that translate already existing images into painted form, frequently after digital or photographic mediation. Born in 1958 in Mortsel near Antwerp, he has long worked out of Belgium while exhibiting internationally across Europe and the United States.
Series such as Der diagnostische Blick, Intolerance and more recent bodies like The Fruit Basket build on blurred, cropped or re-colored sources from historical archives, cinema, smartphone photography and news images. The 2026 wall work at Z33 and the curtains in Bochum show how he increasingly engages with architectural and site-specific formats alongside easel painting.
Where the artist stands now
On balance, Luc Tuymans’s current institutional presence in 2026 rests on the completed run of Before Our Eyes at Z33 and his ongoing contribution to Manifesta 16 Ruhr, while The Fruit Basket consolidates his gallery profile between New York and Los Angeles.
Key facts on Luc Tuymans
- Artist: Luc Tuymans
- Medium / Genre: Painting (conceptual figurative)
- Born: 1958, Mortsel, Belgium
- Place(s) of practice: Studio in Antwerp, Belgium
- Active since: 1980s, first significant solo shows in the early 1990s
- Key work groups: Der diagnostische Blick, Intolerance, Against the Day, The Fruit Basket
- Current/last exhibition: Before Our Eyes, Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Hasselt, March 29–August 23, 2026
- Major collections: Tate (London), MoMA (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco), M HKA (Antwerp)
- Awards: 2008, honorary doctorates and multiple national cultural honors; 2012, Flemish Culture Prize for Visual Arts
- Next date: Participation in Manifesta 16 Ruhr, Christ-König Church, Bochum, within the 2026 biennial run
Frequently asked questions about Luc Tuymans
Where was Luc Tuymans recently on view in 2026?
In 2026 Tuymans was part of the group exhibition Before Our Eyes at Z33 in Hasselt, which ran from March 29 to August 23, 2026, and he had the solo show The Fruit Basket at David Zwirner Los Angeles from February 24 to April 4, 2026.
What defined Luc Tuymans’s exhibition The Fruit Basket?
The Fruit Basket centered on a monumental, nine-part painting derived from an iPhone image of fermenting fruit and included works such as Illumination, Hollow, The Maggot and Migrants, all dealing with mediated perception and contemporary tension.
How does Luc Tuymans engage with architecture in recent projects?
At Z33 he produced a monumental wall painting that occupies an entire gallery wall, while at Manifesta 16 Ruhr he installed printed curtains in Christ-König Church based on recolored stills from Triumph of the Will, directly addressing historical propaganda within a church interior.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
