Michaël Borremans

Known for: intimate figurative painting in the Old Master tradition

Michaël Borremans worked as a graphic designer and cartoonist before studying painting formally in his late twenties, developing a practice rooted in the Old Master tradition — small-scale paintings on wood panel, glazed in multiple layers — but depicting subjects of quiet contemporary unease: figures engaged in meaningless ritual, isolated rooms, ambiguous procedures. His paintings resist straightforward interpretation while remaining physically seductive. He has also made films that use the same controlled, enigmatic staging.