Art enthusiasts looking for compelling exhibitions at independent galleries this August have several remarkable shows to explore across the globe. From historic venues in Belgium to tropical-inspired works in Italy, these five exhibitions showcase innovative contemporary art in intimate settings.

**Timeless Remnants at Grège Gallery, Knokke-Heist, Belgium (Through August 16th)**

Housed in the converted stables of a 14th-century Belgian farmhouse, "Timeless Remnants" presents an evocative exploration of memory through materials. The exhibition, organized by local art platform CWART and Grège Gallery, features four artists who examine how memories persist in physical objects and the emotional significance we attach to them. The historic venue itself reinforces these themes with its exposed wooden beams and weathered brick walls.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is Conrad Willems' monumental sculpture "Construction VII" (2022), priced at €230,000. Standing 10 feet tall, this impressive work consists of 977 individual pieces of Verde Levanto marble that have been carefully cut, sanded, and stacked without any adhesive. While the sculpture references children's wooden building blocks, its appearance evokes ancient ruins. The piece embodies the artist's ongoing interest in knowledge transmission and comes with three hand-drawn instruction sheets that serve as assembly guides when the sculpture needs to be relocated.

Estonian artist Laura Pasquino contributes "LEAF 1" (2025), priced at €4,200, which presents the remnant of a broken vase. This compact, cream-colored sculptural form is crafted from unglazed stoneware and porcelain, emphasizing the beauty found in damaged objects. Spanish painter Chidy Wayne's "Ego 138" (2025) demonstrates another approach to memory through materials. The painting features thick, textured layers of paint depicting a distorted, open hand rendered in midnight blue against a brown background. Upon close inspection, the paint surface appears to be naturally weathering away, creating a sense of temporal decay that mirrors the historic building housing the exhibition.

**Tropico Pasado at Galleria Doris Ghetta, Ortisei, Italy (Through August 22nd)**

London-based artist Lucía Pizzani presents her first solo exhibition in Italy, drawing inspiration from two dramatically different landscapes: the fossil-rich Dolomite mountains formed from ancient seabeds and the lush tropical terrain of her native Venezuela. The exhibition explores connections between natural forms and human anatomy, incorporating both fossilized elements from the Italian mountains and organic shapes from the Venezuelan jungle near Caracas.

The exhibition's centerpiece is "Selva" (2025), a large-scale canvas work featuring embedded red stoneware forms, available at price on request. Created through a unique process of pressing plant fibers and seed pods into raw canvas, the piece resembles a fossilized forest floor. The work reflects Pizzani's ongoing fascination with the Spanish word "concha," which translates to "shell" but also evokes concepts of oval seeds and feminine anatomy. Throughout the exhibition, shell-like forms appear as metaphors for feminine strength, with Pizzani noting in her exhibition text that "the shell is the ultimate armor."

"Tronco Ramal" (2025), also priced on request, is a standing sculpture combining black ceramic, wood, and living plant material. Resembling a carved tree trunk, this work more directly explores human bodily forms while recalling ritual totems and protective vessels. The piece highlights how the human body can serve as a connection point between ecological and ancestral relationships.

Pizzani brings impressive credentials to this exhibition, holding a Bachelor's degree from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, a biology certificate from Columbia University's CERC Center, and a Master of Fine Arts from Chelsea College of Arts. Her work was featured in a solo exhibition at No. 9 Cork Street earlier this year, and her pieces are included in prestigious collections at the Tate in London and the Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art in Stockholm.

**rwa bhineda at SUN.CONTEMPORARY, Bali, Indonesia (Through August 23rd)**

Taking its name from the Balinese philosophical concept of "rwa bhineda" – the harmonious coexistence of opposing forces – this group exhibition brings together 17 Indonesian artists exploring various dualities. The show at SUN.CONTEMPORARY navigates contrasts between life and death, softness and structure, traditional heritage and contemporary reinvention.

Ni Nyoman Merti's "Cremation" (2023), priced at IDR 34,000,000, presents a large-scale, intricately detailed cityscape that evokes the Balinese Hindu funeral ceremony of Ngaben. Rather than directly depicting the celebratory ritual, the painting explores death not as an ending but as a return, folding individual existence back into life's continuous rhythms.

Sarita Ibnoe takes a different approach to tension in "Experimentation of Interruption 02" (2024). This work involves yarn that has been stretched, pushed, and repeatedly manipulated through a process that is simultaneously aggressive and meditative. The title reflects the Indonesian word "kerajinan," which encompasses both craft and diligence.

Alexander Sebastianus Hartanto reimagines traditional Indonesian textiles in "Tumpal Loka 01 (Kemben)" (2025), priced at IDR 67,000,000. This work reinterprets the traditional kemben breastcloth using batik-dyed fabric layered with archival photographs, weaving together concepts of family lineage and cosmological symbolism.

Mangku Muriati's painting "Bharata Yudha Abad 21" (2014) offers a contemporary interpretation of battles from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, an enduring story of ancestral conflict that examines the eternal struggle between greed and justice. I Komang Subrata's "Darma dan Adarma" (2017), priced at IDR 50,000,000, further explores these themes of moral duality.

**Loculos Timoris at Ro2 Art, Dallas (Through August 15th)**

American artist Kathryn Gohmert's solo exhibition draws from her personal experience of temporary blindness in 2018, which sparked her interest in how the brain processes perception under stress. Informed by neuroscience research and personal experience, her paintings explore how fear distorts vision, using symbolic forms to depict the brain's attempts to understand uncertainty and protect itself.

The exhibition title "Loculos Timoris" translates from Latin as "pockets of fear," focusing on the mental pathways we navigate when confronted with disorientation and stress. Gohmert presents a series of 10 paintings that resemble MRI scans of the mind, featuring brain-like forms rendered in vibrant colors using oil paint, graphite, charcoal, and sewn textiles.

"Film 10" (2024), priced at $1,200, shows a vivid orange brain pulsing against a dark, textured background, flanked by stitched white eyes that appear both clinical and cartoonish. The psychological tension reaches its peak in the painting that gives the exhibition its name, "Loculos Timoris (OMY)" (2024), where fragmented brain forms drift across the canvas alongside scattered symbols and text fragments. "Film 5" (2024), also priced at $1,200, continues this exploration of internal mental processes.

Currently based in Germany, Gohmert holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Her recent solo exhibitions include shows at Galerie Eigenheim in Weimar, Germany in 2023 and Galerie HELL in Berlin in 2022.

**The Dreams I Don't Remember at PM/AM, London (Through August 29th)**

Ukrainian artist Daria Dmytrenko's haunting, transformative paintings draw inspiration from Slavic folktales that captivated and frightened her during childhood. These traditional stories now serve as vehicles for exploring her psychological landscape. "Each of my works is essentially a manifestation of my inner self," she explained in a recent interview. Her color-saturated, fluid paintings imagine strange creatures that emerge when the unconscious mind takes control.

"The Triumph of the Huntress" (2025), available at price on request, features a central figure rising from swirling, dense vegetal colors. This nude form morphs seamlessly into fins and claws that flow organically from the body, set in a forest-like underworld. Similarly, "Untitled" (2025), also priced on request, portrays a towering bird-headed figure draped in a luminous green shroud, positioned between a tree and shoreline as if crossing between different realms. These surreal settings evoke the mental landscapes that Dmytrenko explores throughout her work.

Dmytrenko studied painting at Kyiv's National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture before graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, where she currently lives and works. Her recent solo exhibitions include "What's Behind the Gloom" at SETAREH and "Who's Afraid of the Dark" at Secci, both presented in 2024.

These five exhibitions demonstrate the vitality and diversity of contemporary art being presented in independent galleries worldwide, offering art enthusiasts the opportunity to discover innovative works in intimate, often historic settings that enhance the viewing experience.