Summer Exhibitions: Galerie Martine Ehmer

(M.Chat & Quik)

There’s no better time than summer to show off your tan. And that is exactly what Galerie Martine Ehmer is doing from its new location on the Hoogstraat/rue Haute. Until 10 August, the colours will be bursting off the walls in a group show that is perfectly attuned to the season, and is not afraid of an original confrontation between street wisdom and painting. JonOne dives into the depths between these two shores and swims his way to expressive canvases that ally chaos to composition and explosive colours to profuse musings in restrained hues. The legendary French stencil artist Jef Aérosol is also in attendance with a set of beautiful works on wooden panels, intimate canvasses, and vulgar cardboard. Another person who easily found his way from the street to the gallery is L’Atlas, though he did so through hypnotising labyrinths that grip the viewer’s eye with verve. The same is true of Emmanuelle Legavre and her sculptures: a thorny Shopping Bag and especially the acerbic, but very poetically depicted La clé de mon ego. We do not look for poetry in the work of M.Chat, but rather humour and the set of plump paws that we find in his collaboration with Quik: a harmonious serenade on the city maps of Paris and Brussels. But for real song, you should see the Chien jaune by Soly Cissé, a bout of rage out of whose violent chaos the contours of the beast emerge. Whether the sun is shining or it’s raining cats and dogs, these colours will get you through the summer.

• > 10/8, Galerie Martine Ehmer, www.martineehmer.com