Ives Maes

Ives Maes (Hasselt, 1976) works and lives in Antwerp. Working mainly with installations and photography, he has developed several long-term projects that revolve around the concepts of temporary architecture, nomadism, ruination, and ephemerality. He is currently affiliated with KASK School of Arts and the HOGENT Arts Research Fund as a post-doctoral artistic researcher.

Since 2008, he has been working on a photographic series about the architectural heritage of World’s Fairs. For this project, The Future of Yesterday, he travelled around the world to document remnants of earlier universal expositions, capturing the intersection between utopia and dystopia.

In 2018, he presented his solo exhibition Sunville in Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens. His most recent research project, Forbidden Fruits Create Many Jams, connects the principle of the camera obscura pavilion to a perception of paradise.

Ives Maes has notably had solo exhibitions in KMSKA, Antwerp (2022-23); Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp (2022 and 2017); The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (2012); Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2009); M HKA, Antwerp (2007); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2006); and Brigitte Weiss Gallery, Zürich (2004).