ABOUT
Tom Bogaert came to art after a career as a refugee worker with the United Nations and Amnesty International in Europe, Central Africa, and South-East Asia. At the age of 38, Bogaert gave up his legal career to settle in New York as an artist. He had a first solo exhibition in 2008 at ‘Jack the Pelican Presents’ gallery and moved to Amman, Jordan soon thereafter. Tom Bogaert currently lives and works in Budapest, Hungary.
Bogaert’s artistic practice is structured around long-term, site-specific projects that examine the intersections of geo-politics, entertainment, art, and propaganda. He gives material form to international affairs by working across a range of media including installation, video, sound, performance, and web. He practices art with a conscientiousness of the political framework within which it exists, from conception and production to dissemination and reception.
Tom Bogaert was the 2023 Artist in Residence at Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, Austria. His work has been presented at RISING in Melbourne, Australia (2023); documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany (2022); Kunstenfestival Watou in Belgium (2022); Kunstverein Arnsberg in Germany (2022); Villa Les Zéphyrs in Westende, Belgium (2021); ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik in Berlin, Germany (2020); the Lagos Biennial, Nigeria (2019); the Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (2019); Qalandiya International, Jerusalem (2018); Queens Museum and Flux Factory, New York, US (2018); the Bardo National Museum, Tunis, Tunisia (2017); the Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki, Greece (2017); and SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany (2016).
Recent solo exhibitions include IKOB the Museum of Contemporary Art in Eupen, Belgium (2023); bb15 artspace and afo architekturforum oberösterreich in Linz, Austria (2021); Ivuka Arts, Kigali, Rwanda (2019); Espaco Gallery, Algiers, Algeria (2017); The Ultra Lab & Galerie FJ, Casablanca, Morocco (2016); Maison de la Culture, Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia (2015); and Medrar for Contemporary Art, Cairo, Egypt (2014).
Bogaert is one half of the collaborative Haitian Belgian art duo Lafleur & Bogaert. Michel Lafleur and Tom Bogaert are best known for their critically acclaimed projects for documenta fifteen as part of Atis Rezistans / Ghetto Biennale, for which they received ‘the Best Exhibition of the Year 2022 Award’ by the International Association of Art Critics in Germany. Highlights for 2024 include their participation in the 8th Ghetto Biennale in Jacmel, Haiti and they look forward to being part of the Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal, the Watou Arts Festival in Belgium, and the Lubumbashi Biennale in DR Congo.
Curriculum Vitae