From 7 to 21 January 2026, National 55 in Antwerp will present the exhibition Antwerp Blue, a new solo exhibition by Dutch abstract artist Dolf Verlinden. The exhibition will feature some thirty new works — paintings and one sculpture — created especially for this occasion and entirely based on the theme of Antwerp Blue.

The exhibition is the result of intensive research that started with a seemingly simple question: what is Antwerp Blue? The colour, which is historically linked to the city of Antwerp but has no clear definition or colour code, became the starting point for Verlinden's months-long quest through pigment history, ceramic traditions, material knowledge and painting techniques. This led to a new series of works in which colour is no longer merely a medium, but subject, process and meaning all at once.

Verlinden is known for his analytical and investigative approach to abstraction. His work has previously been exhibited at the Groninger Museum and various other museums and galleries at home and abroad. In Antwerp Blue, he explicitly shifts the focus to Antwerp: historically, materially and symbolically. The artist, who previously exhibited at National 55 in 2022, developed this exhibition in close collaboration with the gallery.

The exhibition focuses on the tension between chance and control. Antwerp Blue turns out not to be a deliberately designed colour, but the by-product of a technical process used in 16th-century Antwerp ceramics. This observation forms the core of Verlinden's project: painting as research, mixing as a thought process, the palette as the place where the work is created even before the canvas is touched. The result is works that are sober and concentrated, yet layered and tangible.