About
Val Smets (b.1991)
Visual Artist
Lives and works in Brussels and Helsinki
Val Smets (b. 1991, Luxembourg) lives and works in Brussels. Her paintings navigate the intersections of memory, mythology, and the unconscious, depicting hybrid figures—humanized plants, nymphs, and metamorphic beings—caught in cycles of transformation. Through layered textures and nuanced color palettes, she explores duality, fluidity, and the porous boundary between reality and imagination.
Smets holds a BF from La Cambre (ENSAV), Brussels, and an MFA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Rabouan Moussion (Paris), Esther Verhaeghe Art Concept (Brussels), Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill (Graz), and Valerius Gallery (Luxembourg). In 2022, she presented Bittersweet Invaders, a year-long installation at Kunsthaus Graz. She has also participated in group exhibitions at Better Go South (Stuttgart), Fir Gallery (Beijing), Das Weisse Haus (Vienna), and Gallerie Dumonteil (Paris), among others, as well as in major fairs such as Art Paris and BAD+ Bordeaux.
Smets has been an artist-in-residence at Das Weisse Haus (Vienna), the Styria Artist in Residence (Graz), and the Utö Residency in the Åland Islands. In 2022, she was nominated for the Edward Steichen Award Resident in New York. Her work was published by Fundação De Serralves on the occasion of the Major Exhibition in Park (2022) and has been commissioned for the Red House, Prime Minister’s Order in the Bofill-designed diplomatic residence, Tirana (2025).
Her paintings are part of public collections such as the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture collection, Helmut Marko collection, and private collections in Belgium, Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Finland.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
She loves me not | Valerius Gallery, Luxembourg (LU)
GIMME SHELTER II | Lage egal, Brussels (BE)
The Memory Palace | Wilhelmina’s, Hydra (GR)
Summer show | Esther Verhaeghe - art concepts, Brussles (BE)
2024
Liaison | Better Go South, Stuttgart (DE)
Summer show | Rabouan Moussion, Paris (FR)
YLA - Young Luxembourgish Artists | Valerius Gallery, Luxembourg (LU)
Art Paris | Gallerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris (FR)
2023
Fantastic Figures | Better Go South, Stuttgart (DE)
Art Paris | Gallerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris (FR)
BAD Bordeaux | Gallerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris (FR)
Rose | Alienor Prouvost, Brussels (BE)
Wonders | Demain Art x Kick Cancer Belgium
2022
Blossom | Gallerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris (FR)
Luxembourg Art Week | Valerius Gallery (LU)
Art Paris | Gallerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris (FR)
Callings from the deep | Das Weisse Haus | Wien, (AU)
BAD Bordeaux |Gallerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris (FR)
Fir Gallery, Beijing (CN)
A Faux Pas, CAL (Cercle Artistique de Luxembourg), Luxembourg (LU)
Panel | Blue, Galerie Dumonteil, Paris (FR)
2021
A.A.A.B, Roter Keil, Graz (AU)
YLA - Young Luxembourgish Artists, Valerius Gallery, Luxembourg (LU)
2020
Kuvan Kevät | Exhibition Laboratory | Helsinki, (FI)
BADERVERBOT - Ausstellung im Fluss-Walle 2 | Schaumbad | Graz, (AU)
Rendezvous im Bad:Digitales Brennen, collab with Stefan Lozar | Schaumbad | Graz, Austria
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Guest House | Rabouan Moussion, Paris (FR)
Will go undersky | Esther Verhaeghe – art concepts, Brussels (BE)
2023
Pig and Pepper | Valerius Gallery, Luxembourg (LU)
2022
Blue Brain | Fondation Moonens, Brussels (BE)
Bittersweet Invaders, 1 year installation at Kunsthaus Graz & Kunsthauscafe, Graz (AU)
Living Riddles, AFC Collection, Brussels (BE)
2021
MORE, MORE, MORE!; Schaumbad, Graz (AU)
Living Room, Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill, Graz (AU)
Troublemakers, Gallerie Kajava, Helsinki (FI)
EDUCATION
2021
MFA, Painting | Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts (KUVA) | Helsinki, Finland
2018
Exchange Program (1 year) | Academy of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts (KUVA) | Helsinki, Finland
2017
BFA, Painting | Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels La Cambre (ENSAV) | Brussels, Belgium,
RESIDENCIES
2022
Das Weisse Haus, Vienna (AU)
Mycophilia research residency, Ayatana’s Biophilium, Canada
Nominated for the Edward Steichen Award Resident in New York
2021
STYRIA ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Scholarship, Austria
Artist in Residence, Berlin
2020
STYRIA ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Scholarship, Austria
2019
Telegrafen Impilinna: Artist in Residence, Utö
OTHER PUBLIC APPEARANCES
2025
Commission for the Red House, Prime Minister’s Order in the Bofill-designed diplomatic residence, Tirana
2022
The Art of Mushrooms / A Arte dos Cogumelos” Book published by Fundação De Serralves for the occasion of the Major Exhibition in Park of 2022
2021
Writers in (Climate) Crisis’Lesung at the Klima-Kultur Pavillon, Graz (5.8.) artistic translation (AU
Manuskipte - Zeitschrift für Literatur (Ed. 231) cover magazine
Interview A.I.R. Graz, ORF (22.02.2021)
Photo : Studio View | January, 22 | Das Weisse Haus | Wien, Austria