Rufus Michielsen & Tom Volkaert
“Stab Candy”

November 22 - December 14, 2025

Both making work that sits exactly on a liminal seam between the figurative and the non-figurative, Rufus Michielsen (b. 1982) and Tom Volkaert's (b. 1989) practices meet in the tension between allure and discomfort.

Through processes of distillation and abstraction, they simultaneously draw us in (with glossy colour, cartoonish gestures and anthropomorphic hints) while pushing us away (through awkward articulations, swollen surfaces and bodily traces.)

Like the title 'Stab Candy, a dialectic of attraction and revulsion, the exhibition stages this precise confusion: how beauty can harbour decay, and how the abject ca become strange and strangely desirable.

Installation Views

Works

Rufus Michielsen & Tom Volkaert: 'Omweg’ , 2025. Acrylic, textile glue, oil on canvas + linen + artist frame epoxy, 120 x 100 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'The Pillars Of Society', 2025. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 80 x 50 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'Cheer Leader', 2025. Oil on Linen, 120 x 80 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'The Face of W_hat We Remember', 2020-2025. Acrylic, spraypaint and oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'Crybaby', 2025. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'Grenade', 2025. Acrylic, oil and spraypaint on canvas

Rufus Michielsen: 'Soft Exit', 2025. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'Pile', 2025. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'An Orange/A Lemon', 2025. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 68 x 50 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'The Holler of yet to come', 2025. Acrylic and oil on canvas,60 x 50 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'What’s going on', 2025. Oil, Spraypaint on canvas, 38 x 30 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'Small Turmoil', 2025. Acrylic and oil on linen, 30 x 20cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'Wall X', 2025. Acrylic, spraypaint and oil on canvas, 200 x 140cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'Kentucky Fried Painting', 2025. Acrylic, spraypaint and oil on canvas, 190 x 180 cm

Rufus Michielsen: 'The Sickness (Prompt)', 2025. Acrylic, spraypaint and oil on canvas, 220 x 150 cm

Tom Volkaert: 'Made To Endure, Destined To Fade', 2025. Glazed ceramics, 40 x 46 x 23 cm

Tom Volkaert: 'Only Tears Of Joy', 2025. Glazed ceramics

Tom Volkaert: 'Sculler & Mully', 2025. Glazed ceramics, 66 x 80 x 30 cm

Tom Volkaert: 'All The Art In The World, And You Buy This?', 2025. Glazed ceramics, 42 x 35 x 35 cm

Tom Volkaert: 'CUMBIACUMBIACUMBIACUMBIA', 2025. Glazed ceramics

Tom Volkaert: 'Muito Luxuoso', 2025. Glazed ceramics

Tom Volkaert: 'Artisticus Confusa', 2025. Glazed ceramics

Tom Volkaert: 'A Beautiful Flower From the Pfos Rich Lands of Antwerp', 2021. Glazed ceramics, 52 x 43 x 33 cm

Tom Volkaert: 'Selfportrait With Sigaret And Whiskey Bottle', 2025. Glazed ceramics

Related Artists

☞ Rufus Michielsen
☞ Tom Volkaert

Rufus Michielsen & Tom Volkaert “Stab Candy”

Rufus Michielsen & Tom Volkaert
“Stab Candy”