03.April-13.September.2026
Abby & Friends
About the exhibition
With Abby & Friends, Abby opens its doors each spring, inviting fellow arts organisations to co-curate. The result is a surprising, polyphonic programme that brings three distinct exhibitions and partners together under one roof. One exhibition is curated by Abby itself; the other two gallery spaces are handed over to our ‘friends’.
In this first edition of Abby & Friends, running from 3 April to 13 September 2026, you can discover three new exhibitions:
- Coup de Théâtre. A Play of Clay — Abby puts its eclectic ceramics collection in the spotlight: playful, surprising, and a touch theatrical.
- Double Reality – Tom Callemin — Be-Part presents the photographic work of Tom Callemin: haunting images suspended between reality and imagination.
- Honoré d’O & Gerard van Lankveld – Authorities — Wit.h presents the work of Honoré d’O and Gerard Van Lankveld: two artists with a truly distinctive visual
The Living by Rinus Van de Velde
At Abby, you can also discover the Living by Rinus Van de Velde — for free. For Abby, Van de Velde drew inspiration from the cloister of the Groeningeabdij and the museum’s collection. As the museum’s first meeting space, he wanted the Living to be a place where visitors can quietly discover the collection at their own pace, which also includes a new charcoal drawing by the artist.
About the location
Abby Kortrijk is a playful, accessible and polyphonic museum for visual arts. The municipal collection enters into dialogue with contemporary art, dynamic heritage practices and the theme of ‘identity’ in all its layers. Together with a diverse network of organizations, makers and communities and with art as a universal language, we explore what defines and connects us as people, across borders, generations and cultures. Abby celebrates the human urge to explore and imagination and offers space for reflection, encounter, co-creation and transformation.
