The Wunderwall Enlarged: group exhibition at Gallery Sofie Van de Velde

Without those who experiment, question, and perceive shifts inculture before they fully emerge. Without the risk-takers, the observers, the ones still discovering themselves, urgently shaping new ways of seeing. A world without young artists would be quieter, but profoundly poorer in imagination, critique, and hope.

The Wunderwall-project began as a personal gesture. In her twenties, gallerist Sofie Van de Velde started collecting small, affordable works by young and emerging artists. What emerged was not a hierarchy, but an intuitive constellation: paintings, drawings, photographs, and editions brought together across differences in scale, medium, and voice. Like a contemporary cabinet of curiosities, The Wunderwall grew through attention, intuition, and a desire to hold many worlds at once, allowing unexpected dialogues to unfold on the wall.

Carried into a gallery space, The Wunderwall became aconstantly evolving platform. Positioned at the very heart of the gallery and the first wall encountered upon entering, it asserts its importance immediately. It is a shared ground where emerging artists gain visibility and young collectors encounter new voices. A living wall, shaped by encounters, intuition, and a sustained belief in the future of contemporary art.

Now, with The Wunderwall Enlarged, this idea unfolds upon a new scale. Past Wunderwall artists return to the gallery, revisiting its walls once more. No longer merely a backdrop, the walls become an immersive installation, filled from floor to ceiling with works that together form a dense and vibrant ensemble of perspectives.

Throughout the exhibition, the space remains in flux. Traces appear, presences shift, and the walls quietly record what has passed. The space reflects the way art lives with us: never fixed, always in motion, continually reshaped by time, attention, and exchange.

This exhibition is a celebration of young artists not as a category, but as a necessity. Their practices sharpen our understanding of the present and sketch possible futures. They challenge systems, reflect lived realities, and articulate what is still forming. The Wunderwall Enlarged is an ode to these voices: past, present, and unfolding. A reminder that contemporary art can only exist by continuously making space for those who are just beginning.

Participating artists

Antoine Goossens

Clement Jacques Vossen

Daniëlle Hoogendoorn

Edouard Devriendt

Elias Derboven

Elise Debrock

Elise Willems

Ewoud Viane

Fleur De Roeck

Francesco Battistello

Ines Claus

Juliane Noll

Kenneth Aidoo

Lien Buysens

Lotte Vansantvoet

Marian Wijnvoord

Natasja Mabesoone

Nico Tovar

Noa Verborgh

Noa Verkeyn

Oxiea Villamonte

Palatine Demoen

Polly Huyghe

Quinten De Bruyn

Ralf Kokke

Amber Andrews

Simon Verougstraete

Sarah De Vos