The Studio #5: Antoine Berghs

In The Studio #5, Berghs is presenting work that revolves around his attempts at self-transformation.

The fifth edition of The Studio will open in the Bonnefanten on Wednesday 22 September. The Studio provides a platform for small-scale solo presentations, in which artists give an account of recent developments in their work. In this fifth edition, it is the turn of Antoine Berghs (1971 Geleen - Maastricht). In The Studio #5, Berghs is presenting work that revolves around his attempts at self-transformation, and revealing recent developments within this spiritual universe. On 22 October, an important moment in his presentation, Berghs will open the exhibition with a ritual performance, as part of Museum Night Maastricht.

An inward journey

Antoine Berghs prefers to describe his work as a continuous pilgrimage: ‘a cathartic journey to get a grip on things and the world’. For Berghs, creating art is a deep inward journey that is about change and pushing back frontiers. As he says, ‘real change doesn’t come from outside; it takes place deep within you’.

The title of the exhibition:

adjust your vision
in case you find pity in pain
enter like it’s supposed to
say yes at every door
we harvest the blue


In his work, he tries to show this genuine experience from the inside out: being present in a material world, while regarding himself largely as a non-physical, spiritual and energetic being.

Ritual performance

The exhibition will unfold in two parts:

  • Part 1: Until 22 October, the hinged panels, or rather ‘gates’, will be closed and only the sides showing abstract motifs for the purpose of meditation will be visible.
  • Part 2: Following a ritual public performance, given by the artist during Museum Night Maastricht on 22 October, the gates will open. From then on, visitors are confronted with Berghs’ fragile inner world, in the form of a series of figurative, large-scale drawings in coloured pencil.

Antoine Berghs

Antoine Berghs studied at the Maastricht art academy between 1990 and 1995, following which he joined the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. He was artist-in-residence at MoMA PS1 in New York, in 2002-2003. Berghs won the Charlotte van Pallandt Award in 2004 and the Royal Award for Painting in 2006. His work has been shown in many group and solo exhibitions in the Netherlands and abroad, including exhibitions in Museum Arnhem, Bonnefanten Maastricht, De Domijnen Sittard, Schunck Heerlen, Kunstmuseum Den Haag and Tate Modern in London. His work is included in many museum, corporate and private collections.

The Studio #5: Antoine Berghs will run until 27 March 2022.

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