ABOUT
At the age of 38, Tom Bogaert gave up his legal career for the UN and Amnesty International to settle in New York as an artist. He had a first solo exhibition in 2008 at ‘Jack the Pelican Presents’ gallery in New York City, where he presented This is Rwanda, a project examining responses to genocide that extend beyond the rational frameworks of official state and multilateral institutions.
Shortly after his New York debut, Bogaert relocated to Amman, Jordan, where he began developing a body of work informed by his experiences as a foreigner living and working in the Arab world. MENA (Middle East North Africa) brings together artworks produced before, during, and after the Arab Spring—created in Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria between 2010 and 2018.
In 2013, the paths of Haitian artist Michel Lafleur and Tom Bogaert crossed for the first time at the Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince. They have been friends and collaborators ever since. Lafleur & Bogaert gained international recognition for their acclaimed projects with Atis Rezistans / Ghetto Biennale at Documenta 15 in 2022, receiving enthusiastic praise from both international and local media. In 2023, their work contributed to Atis Rezistans / Ghetto Biennale being awarded Exhibition of the Year by the International Association of Art Critics in Germany.
At the invitation of Sammy Baloji, an award-winning international artist central to the contemporary art scene of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lafleur & Bogaert participated in the 2024 edition of the Biennale of Lubumbashi.
Lafleur & Bogaert received a project subsidy from the Flemish government in Belgium for both 2025 and 2026. In addition, they have been named 2025 Artistic Research Initiative (ARI) Fellows, supported by the Mellon Foundation at Duke University in the United States.
In 2025, alongside their debut U.S. solo exhibition at Frosch & Co Gallery in New York City—where it received a glowing review in The Brooklyn Rail—highlights include their participation in the International Triennale of Textile in Łódź, Poland; Toxic Lands, Living Narratives at Galerie Imane Farès in Paris; and presentations of their J’aime RD Congo project in Kolwezi and Mbuji-Mayi, both in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Opening in February 2026, Lafleur & Bogaert will participate in the 6th edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India. They are also honored to have been invited to present a solo exhibition at the White Cube of the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC) in Lusanga, DR Congo, in May 2026.
Curriculum Vitae