L'OEIl: Contemporary Rococo, future heirlooms and wearable art.

Paintings that reveal hidden worlds, designers inspired by curious Wunderkammers, art fairs where centuries speak to each other in texture and colour…

Five artists, artisans, exhibitions and fairs that caught my eye and kept lingering in my mind.

Artist: Flora Yukhnovich

I got to know her stunning work when visiting Hauser & Wirth. At first glance, The bright, colourful paintings seemed abstracts, but when I paused to take them in, suddenly the fluid swirls began to reveal gorgeous echoes of Rococo: playful nimphs, satyrs and elegant shepherdesses that instantly reminded me of Fragonard’s L’Escarpolette. I love this kind of art that rewards slowness, where you discover a whole new world hidden in plain sight.

Exhibition: Sculpting the Senses

Iris Van Herpen's designs are something else entirely. Sometimes stunningly beautiful, always extraordinary. What I find so intriguing is both her use of original materials and the sources she draws from. Fungi, cabinets of curiosities, lucid dreams, electricity, ancient mythology, the deep-sea world… All of them share a sense of mystery and elusiveness. The expansive exhibition Sculpting the Senses at Rotterdam's Kunsthal presents her work in a captivating way, complemented by works from talented artists including Kim Keever and Heishiro Ishino.

Art fair: BRAFA

Renowned Old Masters, contemporary abstracts, Native American Hopi artefacts, Belgian Art Nouveau furniture or radiant Art Deco jewellery… it is this fascinating cross-pollination between art and design, spanning continents, periods and styles, that left the strongest impression during my first visit to the Brussels Art Fair, and it will certainly not be my last.

What also struck me in seeing such a rich diversity side by side were the echoes of today’s popular interior aesthetics: organic forms, tactile materials, and warm palettes of ochre, orange and pink. Elements that feel distinctly contemporary, yet are already present in the paintings of Bram Bogart and Wout Hoeboer, or in the use of mahogany in the nineteenth-century furniture of designer Gustave Serrurier-Bovy that were in full display at Brafa.

Artisan: Emma Olyff

For some of us, creativity runs in the family, passed down like a beloved heirloom from one generation to the next. Jewellery designer Emma Olyff, the founder of EMWA Jewelry, is one such person. Her life journey took her across many countries, before she settled in the tranquil mountains of North-Carolina, surrounded by nature, which serves as her greatest inspiration. Read my conversation with the lovely Emma here.

Riz Riz Rizz


Like plunging into a peaceful dreamscape of peachy hues, at once tender, sultry and primal. The soft color palettes of this Indonesian artist soothe me in volatile times, while his affinity for the female nude, wild animals and wine invoke emotion, intuition, and the unbridled freedom of ancient bacchanalia. References to literature, poetry and mythology run through Rizz' work, surfacing in symbolic objects, words and phrases. I keep being reminded of Gaugain, maybe you see it too?