Joost Pauwaert

BIO | SELECTED WORKS | CV

Joost Pauwaert’s work explores the relationship between power, beauty, and poetry, often infused with a playful, childlike curiosity. He incorporates familiar and symbolic imagery that evokes both recognition and tension. Pauwaert is drawn to the aesthetic of the imposing and the monumental, which he balances with a sense of the caricatural and a symbolic wonder that softens its intensity and opens up imaginative possibilities.

Joost Pauwaert lives and works in Wilrijk, BE. In recent years, his work has been presented in numerous exhibitions, including solo and group shows at BARBÉ and other venues such as Ooidonk Art Festival, C-mine (Genk), Art Brussels (with Dauwens & Beernaert), Art Cologne (with Galerie Eric Mouchet, FR), Archipel at Deweer Gallery Estate (Otegem), Art Rotterdam (with BARBÉ), Ponti (Antwerp), Pizza Gallery (Antwerp), Gevaertsdreef (Oudenaarde), PASS Kunstroute (Lede), and Emergent (Veurne). Following his second solo exhibition, The End Is Near (2024), accompanied by the performance Apocalyptic Triumph Parade, one of the sculptures was acquired by the Museum of Deinze and the Leie Region. He also participated in the debut exhibition of ABBY Kortrijk, where he performed Apocalyptic Carousel in September 2025. In 2026, Pauwaert was invited by curator Simon Delobel for a solo exhibition, A Good Hammering, at KIOSK (Ghent, BE), presenting an immersive installation that reflects his evolving practice of recent years. In the summer of 2026, he presented a solo exhibition at Park Ter Beuken, invited by the city of Lokeren.