Karine Rougier and Alessandro Roma at Fondation Thalie, Brussels

Fondation Thalie in Brussels launches its 2019 theme "The Renaissance artist as a worker" with a dual exhibition featuring Karine Rougier and Alessandro Roma. Rougier (b. 1982, Malta) reconstructs her Marseille studio as a cabinet of curiosities filled with masks, amulets, 1970s prints and postcards, sacred stories, and poetry. Within this visual labyrinth, she presents a new painting series blending iconography from multiple religions: Kali (Hindu goddess of destruction and rebirth), a headless neck referencing Judith and Holofernes, and a bear mask evoking a wild Janus. Her work is described as timeless, celestial, and dreamlike. In dialogue with Rougier's atemporal universe, Roma (b. 1977, Milan) contributes ceramics characterized by embossing, reliefs, fissures, and openings arranged freely, with colors and glazes applied spontaneously. These objects open to light and new dimensions, approaching totemic elements. The exhibition, titled "En même temps, elle sentit la matière du ciel," runs from April 24 to June 15, 2019, at Fondation Thalie (15 rue Buchholtz, 1050 Brussels). It is part of the fringe events of Art Brussels (April 25–28, 2019), the Belgian contemporary art fair.