Michaël Borremans
Michaël Borremans (born 1963) is a Belgian painter and filmmaker who lives and works in Ghent. His painting technique draws on 18th-century art, as well as the works of Édouard Manet and Degas. The artist also cites the Spanish court painter Diego Velázquez as an important influence.
Also recorded as Michael Borremans · Borremans Michael
Michaël Borremans

EvelienBauwens · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Michaël Borremans
- Born
- 1963
- Birthplace
- Geraardsbergen, Belgium
- Field
- Painting
- Nationality
- Belgium
- Occupation
- painter · scenographer · photographer · draftsperson · artist · watercolorist
- Fields
- painting · visual arts
- Education
- Sint-Lucasinstituut (Gent)
- Honours
- Vlaamse Cultuurprijs voor Beeldende Kunst
- Languages
- Dutch
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Michaël Borremans (born 1963) is a Belgian painter and filmmaker who lives and works in Ghent. His painting technique draws on 18th-century art, as well as the works of Édouard Manet and Degas. The artist also cites the Spanish court painter Diego Velázquez as an important influence.
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Michaël Borremans (born 1963) is a Belgian artist, draftsperson and graphic artist, among other activities. The artist was born in Geraardsbergen.
Michaël Borremans studied at Sint-Lucasinstituut (Gent). The artist worked in Ghent. Michaël Borremans is active in painting and visual arts.
Languages used include Dutch. Works by the artist are held at Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Museum of Art and Dallas Museum of Art, among others. Michaël Borremans received Vlaamse Cultuurprijs voor Beeldende Kunst.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 28 September 2026
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Authority files
wikidata · Q284808 · wikipedia · Michaël Borremans
In this article
Biography
Biography
In recent years, he has been using photographs he has made himself or made-to-order sculptures as the basis for his paintings.
Michaël Borremans studied at Sint-Lucasinstituut (Gent). The recorded working language is Dutch. The field of work recorded is painting and visual arts. Places of work recorded in the authority are Ghent. Work by Michaël Borremans is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst and Israel Museum. Distinctions recorded are Vlaamse Cultuurprijs voor Beeldende Kunst.

Klokke Roeland, Gent
Tom Parnell from Scottish Borders, Scotland · Klokke Roeland, Gent

Toeristisch infobord Gent
FrDr
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Michaël Borremans • Born — 1963 • Birthplace — Geraardsbergen, Belgium • Field — Painting
Early life and education
Early life and education
Borremans studied at the Sint-Lucas Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst (College of Arts and Sciences St. Lucas) in Ghent, receiving his M.F.A. in 1996.
Career
Career
Originally trained as a photographer, he turned his attention to drawing and painting in the mid-nineties. He uses old photographs of people and landscapes as inspiration for his work. Until his break-through, he was a teacher at the Stedelijk Secundair Kunstinstituut Gent (Secondary Municipal Art Institute of Ghent). Another painter Jan Van Imschoot had seen and bought many pieces of his work when it was exhibited in his local pub in Kalken. He put him in touch with Jan Hoet, the founder of the S.M.A.K. (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst) (City Museum for Contemporary Art) in Ghent, Belgium. This led to an introduction to Frank Demaegd, owner of Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp, where he had his first major exhibition. In November 2022, Borremans' book As Sweet as It Gets (2014) was featured in the background of an advertising image from the fashion brand Balenciaga. The image was part of a campaign that drew heavy criticism for material in other images alluding to the sexualisation of children. The inclusion of Borremans' book led to many people on Twitter creating connections between the campaign and Borremans' works, and criticising his paintings, such as the series Fire from the Sun (2018), which show blood-covered toddlers playing in fire and what appear to be human limbs.
Exhibitions and projects
Exhibitions and projects
In 2011, Borremans' work was the subject of a solo exhibition, titled Eating the Beard, which was first on view at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart in Germany and traveled to Műcsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest, and Kunsthalle Helsinki in Finland. In 2010, he had a solo exhibition at the Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo, and in 2009, he had a solo show at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hanover, Germany In 2007, he had a solo show at gallery De Appel in Amsterdam, focusing on his cinematic works. In 2005, he had a one-person exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent. The paintings then traveled to Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London, and The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, while the drawings traveled to the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio. Other solo exhibitions include La maison rouge, Paris (2006); Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Germany; and the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland (both 2004). In 2004, he participated in Manifesta 5, The European Biennial of Contemporary Art. Michaël Borremans: Fixture, was presented at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga in 2015–2016. A major museum survey, Michaël Borremans: As sweet as it gets, which included one hundred works from the past two decades, was on view at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 2014. The exhibition traveled later in the year to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, followed by the Dallas Museum of Art in 2015. Michaël Borremans: The Advantage, the artist's first museum solo show in Japan, was also on view in 2014 at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. In 2018, Borremans had a solo exhibition in Hong Kong titled Fire from the Sun. The gallery, David Zwirner, described the works as featuring "toddlers engaged in playful but mysterious acts with sinister overtones and insinuations of violence." In her review, Kartya Tylevich said, "The children are all light-skinned Sistine-style cherubs, sometimes covered in blood. The children do not appear to be distressed or disturbed (though some viewers at the gallery may be)."
Art market
Art market
Borremans is the most expensive living Belgian painter in the art market. His highest selling painting was Girl with Duck (2011), which sold for £2,045,000 ($3,165,660), at Sotheby's London, on 15 October 2015.
Identity
Identity
Michaël Borremans is recorded as painter, scenographer, photographer, draftsperson and artist.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1963
Michaël Borremans born at Geraardsbergen.
Other activities
In 2024, Borremans starred in Luca Guadagnino‘s Queer.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Nieuw werk van Michaël Borremans in Antwerp
- 2.Dafoe, Taylor. How Artists Matthew Barney and Michaël Borremans Found Themselves Swept Up in Controversy Over a Balenciaga Ad Campaign. Artnet. 30 November 2022.
- 3.Who Is Michaël Borremans? Artist's Work Resurfaces Amid Balenciaga Scandal. Newsweek. 28 November 2022.
- 4.Balenciaga under fire again as 'disturbing' Michael Borremans book spotted in ad. HITC. 24 November 2022.
- 5.Michaël Borremans' 2009 exhibition at Kestnergesellschaft
- 6.Borremans' 2007 exhibition at De Appel
- 7.M A N I F E S T A Flash detection
- 8.Michaël Borremans biography David Zwirner. David Zwirner.
- 9.Michaël Borremans: Fire from the Sun. elephant. 2 March 2018.
- 10.Sotheby’s Italian Art & Contemporary Sales Bring $118.8M, Judd Tully, 15 October 2015
- 11.Sotheby's
- 12.Alex Greenberger (23 July 2024), Artists Andra Ursuta, Michaël Borremans Star in Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Queer,’ Set to Premiere in Venice ARTnews.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q284808: Michaël BorremansWikimedia Foundation
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Further particulars
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Michaël Borremans worked in painting and visual arts. He belonged to Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten. He worked at Ghent. Borremans received Vlaamse Cultuurprijs voor Beeldende Kunst.
Career and activity
Recognition and collections
Work by Michaël Borremans is
Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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