Verbeke foundation

The Verbeke Foundation is a museum in the East Flemish municipality of Kemzeke that manages the private art collection of Flemish Waasland collector Geert Verbeke. Modern and contemporary art is exhibited. 

Mission and vision

Our exhibitions do not want to be an oasis. Our presentation is unfinished, moving, unpolished, contradictory, sloppy, complex, inharmonious, living and unmonumental, like the world outside the museum walls.

The Verbeke Foundation is a private art site that was opened on 1 June 2007 by art collectors Geert Verbeke and Carla Verbeke-Lens.

Culture, nature and ecology come together. The space houses an impressive collection of modern and contemporary art and also offers opportunities to young artists as an art sanctuary.

With its 12 hectares of nature reserve and its 20,000 m² of covered spaces, the Verbeke Foundation is one of the largest private initiatives for contemporary art in Europe. The warehouses of Geert Verbeke's former transport company were converted into unique exhibition spaces. One of the buildings was decorated to display the exceptional collection of collages and assemblages. The Verbeke Foundation is in a continuous growth process. Artists can stay in residence and larger and smaller exhibitions alternate, making the foundation look different every day, like a breathing organism.

History

In the early 1990s Geert and Carla Verbeke-Lens started collecting art. After an initial interest in abstract painting, the collection was reoriented towards collages and assemblages by mainly Belgian artists. In recent years, the collection has been further expanded to contemporary art and bio-art.

Collages and assemblages 
The core of the private collection consists of an exceptional collection of some 6000 collages and assemblages, mainly from the twentieth century. A separate room was set up to permanently exhibit part of this collection.

Contemporary art
The Verbeke Foundation wants to be a place where culture, nature and ecology come together. The work of bio-artists and artists who work with living materials (plants, animals, scents) fits in seamlessly with this. Since the opening of the Verbeke Foundation in 2007, the collection could be expanded with contemporary works and installations built in situ.

Further information can be obtained via the website: verbekefoundation.com

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Floor plan

There is something for everyone to see that he will find impressive, since this museum is something unique in its kind.

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