The Crystal Ship 10th Anniversary Transforms Ostend

The Crystal Ship 10th Anniversary returned to Ostend this spring with over 20 monumental murals and public artworks, celebrating a decade of transforming the Belgian coastal city into one of Europe’s leading open-air museums for contemporary urban art. Over ten years, The Crystal Ship has reshaped the visual identity of Ostend.

Curated by Belgian actor and artist Matthias Schoenaerts under his artist name Zenith, the 2026 edition brought together an international group of artists working across graffiti, street art, contemporary painting, and large-scale public intervention.

Work in Progress for The Crystal Ship , Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Rather than existing as isolated artworks, the murals unfolded organically throughout the city. Visitors encountered towering monochromatic animals, dreamlike portraits, fragmented typography, abstract gestures, and politically charged imagery woven directly into everyday life. Some works appeared quietly between residential streets. Others dominated entire buildings along the coast. Together, they transformed Ostend into a living landscape shaped by colour, conversation, memory, and movement.

The Crystal Ship 10th Anniversary Brings New Murals to Ostend

Queen Andrea

New York artist Queen Andrea emerged from the graffiti movement of early 1990s Manhattan, establishing herself through vibrant large-scale typographic murals.

Andrea, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Adrian Lurco

Romanian-born artist Adrian Iurco, now based in Antwerp, brings a quiet cinematic stillness to The Crystal Ship 2026 with a mural adapted from one of his existing works: a yellow parasol lingering just before closing time, capturing a fleeting moment suspended somewhere between calm, nostalgia, and melancholy.

Adrian, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Rutger Termohlen

Dutch artist, illustrator, and tattoo artist Rutger Termohlen brings an intimate human presence to Ostend with a mural inspired by pioneering artist Anna Boch, whose deep connection to the Belgian coast and fascination with James Ensor quietly echo throughout the work.

Rutger, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Over several weeks, artists worked across façades, public buildings, streets, and unexpected urban surfaces, turning Ostend into a dynamic meeting point between local residents, international visitors, and contemporary artistic practice.

BUE

Belgian artist BUE joins The Crystal Ship 10th Anniversary with a mural that brings his distinctive visual language into the streets of Ostend, contributing to the festival’s dialogue between graffiti, contemporary art, and public space.

BUE, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Astrid Verplancke

Belgian illustrator and painter Astrid Verplancke explores human connection in her mural Tussenruimte, where figures, gestures, and quiet encounters become a poetic reflection on curiosity, openness, and the unknown spaces between people.

Astrid Verplancke, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

DEFO 8.4

For Belgian graffiti pioneer DEFO 8.4, discovering hip-hop culture in the early 1990s transformed the walls of Brussels into a playground for experimentation, leading to a distinctive visual language defined by fractured lettering, carefully balanced colour palettes, and his now-iconic white cat signature.

DEFO, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Curator Matthias Schoenaerts approached this anniversary edition as an invitation to curiosity and public encounter, encouraging audiences to engage with the city differently through art embedded within everyday life.

“Art in public space is not a luxury; it is oxygen,” Schoenaerts stated during the festival. “It turns passersby into witnesses, neighbors into conversation partners, strangers into accomplices. It grates, it disturbs, it connects.”

Zenith (Matthias Schoenaerts) and Koen van den Broek

Belgian artists Zenith (Matthias Schoenaerts) and Koen van den Broek present Round 4, a minimalist yet emotionally charged mural inspired by a boxing phrase about resilience and renewal, where industrial forms, sharp lines, and the symbolism of the ring become metaphors for perseverance, vulnerability, and the courage to begin again.

Zenith (Matthias Schoenaerts) and Koen van den Broek, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

ROA

Belgian artist ROA, internationally celebrated for his monumental black-and-white animal murals rendered with anatomical precision, returns to The Crystal Ship a decade after his original pyramid of rodents disappeared, this time replacing them with a towering composition of seabirds and fishing birds rooted in Ostend’s coastal identity.

ROA, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Alexis Diaz

Puerto Rican artist Alexis Diaz transforms walls into dreamlike worlds through his hyper-detailed monochromatic murals, where animals, nature, and human emotion merge into surreal hybrid forms exploring vulnerability, metamorphosis, and survival beneath a deep-blue universe filled with hidden zodiac signs.

Alexis Diaz, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Inside Out project

French artist JR, who first emerged from the graffiti scene in the suburbs of Paris, brings his globally acclaimed Inside Out project to Ostend, continuing his powerful use of monumental black-and-white portraiture to transform public space into a platform for visibility, connection, and collective expression.

JR, Inside Out Project, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Mariana Duarte Santos

Portuguese artist Mariana Duarte Santos explores memory, emotion, and human presence through cinematic compositions inspired by film stills and found photographs, while her mural Star Gazer returns to her earliest connection with music and the childlike wonder of discovery.

Mariana Duarte Santos, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Stefaan Vermuyten

Despite lifelong eye problems and years spent working as a piano tuner, Belgian artist Stefaan Vermuyten never abandoned his artistic ambition, and now brings his first mural to Ostend through a layered visual language of shadows, fragmented figures, and subtle abstraction.

Stefaan Vermuyten, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Visitors explored the artworks freely on foot and by bike through dedicated public routes, reinforcing the festival’s long-standing belief that art should remain accessible to everyone.

“I love the ephemeral nature of murals, the way the seasons become part of the work,” Schoenaerts reflected. “Art belongs on the street, where everyone can see it, experience it, and respond to it in their own way.”

Over the past decade, The Crystal Ship has evolved into one of Europe’s defining platforms for contemporary urban art, transforming Ostend into a permanent open-air museum that continues to grow with each edition.

Patricia Ghijsens and Yorgos Maraziotis

Belgian artistic duo Patricia Ghijsens and Yorgos Maraziotis bring their multidisciplinary practice to The Crystal Ship with Lovers, their first large-scale mural, where biblical references, raw materiality, and emotional ambiguity come together in a work that invites viewers to interpret its meaning for themselves.

Patricia Yorgos, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Zenk One

Dutch artist Zenk One (Robin Nas) brings a vibrant and graphic visual language to Ostend through murals defined by clean lines, fresh colour palettes, and nature-inspired patterns rooted in his early discovery of graffiti culture.

ZENK ONE, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Yann L’Outsider

French artist Yann L’Outsider, who lives and works along the Brittany coast, transforms graffiti lettering into expressive black-and-white compositions where calligraphy, movement, and abstraction merge into forms that seem to dance across the wall.

Yann L’Outsider, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

SODA

London-based artist SODA, born in Italy as Alan De Decco, is known for minimalist black-and-white murals that appear almost sculptural through his precise shading techniques, while in Ostend he playfully manipulates his own name until it nearly dissolves into the wall itself.

SODA, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Lula Goce

Spanish muralist Lula Goce channels the atmosphere of her Galician coastal upbringing into powerful, dreamlike portraits, and in Ostend her mural EVE reimagines the story of the first woman through the colours, flowers, and dune landscapes characteristic of the city’s windswept coastline.

Lula Goce, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

MUMBY

Congolese artist MUMBY, who works between Antwerp and Paris, creates intuitive and emotionally charged works that begin with photographic references before transforming into expressive visual narratives balancing the personal with the political.

MUMBY, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Projeto Ruído

Portuguese duo Projeto Ruído, created by artists Draw and Alma, fuse contrasting visual languages where black and white collides with colour and figuration dissolves into abstraction, while their mural in Ostend reflects on humanity’s role in shaping the future and the enduring possibility of renewal despite the weight of contemporary history.

Projeto Ruído, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

DOES

Dutch artist DOES (Joos van Barneveld) brings decades of graffiti evolution to Ostend through dynamic three-dimensional lettering and energetic compositions, creating a mural that continues a visual dialogue begun just a week earlier in Miami, where colour, movement, and environment seamlessly collide.

Does, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Hyun Dekempe

Belgian artist Hyun Dekempe channels personal history and collective tension into Who Set the World on Fire?, a striking mural where national animals of global superpowers are served at the table as symbols of geopolitical conflict, inviting viewers into a conversation shaped by identity, power, and shared humanity.

Hyun Dekempe, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Sarah Yu Zeebroek

Belgian artist, illustrator, and musician Sarah Yu Zeebroek brings her playful and slightly absurd visual universe to Ostend through a mural at ’t Kadaster, where strange creatures and poetic humour reflect the cultural journey between Hong Kong and the Belgian coast, leaving the colours entirely to the viewer’s imagination.

Sarah Yu Zeebroek, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Didier “Jaba” Mathieu

Belgian street art pioneer Didier “Jaba” Mathieu blends influences from comics, manga, anime, and futuristic abstraction into vibrant, high-energy worlds, while his mural The Misfits pays tribute to outspoken journalists and political figures such as Julian Assange and Bernie Sanders, celebrating those he sees as working in the interest of humanity while remaining defiantly different.

Jaba, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Alongside the new murals, the anniversary edition expanded its cultural programme through collaborations with local galleries and the Subway Art exhibition at Fort Napoleon, which explored the history and global legacy of graffiti culture.

Larsen Bervoets

Belgian multidisciplinary artist Larsen Bervoets brings his signature monumental style of bold colour contrasts and geometric compositions to Ostend, continuing a longstanding creative dialogue with curator Matthias Schoenaerts following earlier collaborations including murals at Antwerp Prison and Rock Werchter’s tribute to Sanda Dia.

Larsen, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Loomit

German graffiti pioneer Loomit remains one of the most influential figures in European street art, having redefined the possibilities of graffiti since the early 1980s through groundbreaking 3D lettering and monumental compositions, while his new mural in Ostend, centred around a portrait of Plato, playfully bridges graffiti culture with philosophy and classical thought.

Loomit, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Vynck1

Ostend-born artist Vynck1 draws from the city’s maritime identity in a series of murals combining realism and graffuturism, transforming the iconic Lange Nelle lighthouse into a traditional nautical tattoo repeated across ten different houses for the festival’s tenth edition.

Vynck1, Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

Over the past decade, The Crystal Ship has evolved far beyond a mural festival. With more than 100 permanent artworks now embedded throughout the city, it has become a long-term cultural dialogue between artists, architecture, local residents, and visitors who continue to rediscover Ostend through its walls.

This anniversary edition carried that conversation even further.

Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026