'Inside / Outside, The House as Shell' is a temporary, site-specific group exhibition taking place during Antwerp Art Weekend. For this project, Galerie Zwart Huis deliberately steps outside its usual context, entering into dialogue with an Antwerp-based artist and location.

The gallery settles into the back house of painter Nils Verkaeren, where boundaries between inside and outside, centre and periphery, host and guest are explored. Verkaeren acts both as artist and curator, inviting a selection of gallery artists into his personal living and working space. He has selected works by Guy Slabbinck, Nick Andrews, Anne Van Outryve, Fik van Gestel, Stefan Peters, Michaël de Kok, Yves Beaumont, Peter Lagast, Colin Waeghe and Stief DeSmet.

The back house functions not merely as an exhibition space, but as an active metaphor. With little direct view of the outside world, the space is nonetheless charged with concentration and memory. For Verkaeren, the house operates as a shell: a protective inner space that does not exclude the outside world, but filters and reinterprets it. This stands in contrast to his plein air painting practice, in which nature serves as an alibi for painting.

In this exhibition, the focus shifts to the inner landscape — the image that emerges when the outside world is not directly visible. Rather than presenting literal landscapes, the artists create mental windows onto the world. Paintings, sculptures, and installations hover between perception and imagination, forming an intimate, sensorial experience that resonates with the exploratory character of Antwerp Art Weekend.

With 'Inside / Outside, The House as Shell', Galerie Zwart Huis participates for the first time in the OFF Program of Antwerp Art Weekend. The gallery invites visitors to slow down and reflect on how spaces—private and public alike—shape what we perceive. At a time when these boundaries are increasingly blurred, the exhibition offers space for reflection and imagination.

Participating artists: Nils Verkaeren, Guy Slabbinck, Nick Andrews, Anne Van Outryve, Fik van Gestel, Stefan Peters, Michaël de Kok, Yves Beaumont, Peter Lagast, Colin Waeghe, and Stief DeSmet

DJ De La Ghost — the alter ego of Belgian artist Peter Lagast (1972) — presents a DJ set that unfolds as both a visual and auditory performance. After graduating from the painting department at St-Lucas Ghent in 1995, Lagast developed a multifaceted artistic practice centered on drawing, painting, travel and sculptural explorations. In recent years, his work has focused on layering paint onto existing images, particularly old record sleeves.

During the set, these transformed vinyl records become both source material and visual actors. As DJ De La Ghost plays the records, their covers appear and disappear, creating a playful dialogue between sound and image. Just as in his paintings, fragments, details and visual cues emerge and recombine, echoing the logic of today’s swipe culture in which images and references constantly overlap.

The DJ set becomes an extension of Lagast’s artistic practice: a performative collage where music, record sleeves and painterly interventions merge into an open field of associations, inviting the audience to navigate their own narratives between what they hear and what they see.

19:00-21:00

DJ set by Antwerp-based DJs MicaNik (WeAreVarious, SoundScore for Sculpture)

18:00-21:00

‘El Pulso del Agua’ traces the painting expeditions of Belgian artist Nils Verkaeren across Colombia, where he worked directly within remote landscapes shaped by rivers, climate, and movement. Canvases carried through jungle, rivers, and mountains become physical records of the journey. The book is published by Hopper&Fuchs and will be presented in conversation with publisher/curator Bruno Devos.

14:00-16:00

'Inside / Outside, The House as Shell' is a site-specific group exhibition taking place during Antwerp Art Weekend. For this project, Galerie Zwart Huis deliberately steps outside its usual context, entering into dialogue with an Antwerp-based artist and location.

The gallery settles into the back house of painter Nils Verkaeren, where boundaries between inside and outside, centre and periphery, host and guest are explored. Verkaeren acts both as artist and curator, inviting a selection of gallery artists into his personal living and working space. He has selected works by Guy Slabbick, Nick Andrews, Anne Van Outryve, Fik Van Gestel, Stefan Peters, Michael De Kok, Yves Beaumont, Peter Lagast, Colin Waeghe and Stief DeSmet.

During the exhibition, two DJ sets and a book presentation/artist talk between artist Nils Verkaeren and publisher/curator Bruno Devos will take place in the back house.