Belgian Artists to take over City for Galway Cartoon Festival 2026

Galway Cartoon Festival 2026 is not just celebrating its 10th anniversary in October; it will also be celebrating the great tradition of cartooning from the Belgian region of Flanders. Find out what's instore below..

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Cartoons by more than 20 Flemish artists will form one of the centrepiece exhibitions of the Festival, while speakers from the coalface of Belgian cartooning will give unique insights into its past, present, and future.

From Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s witty, humorous depictions of everyday 16th century life through to the 20th century and the strangeness of Magritte and the iconic adventures of Hergé’s much loved boy detective Tintin, Belgium has made an extraordinary contribution to the European visual arts.

above: Jean Claude Salemi

From The Flemish Masters To The Comic Strip: Belgian Art History in Cartoons is an exhibition exploring and celebrating the country’s rich and varied art history, and a great introduction to Belgian cartoons and cartoonists.

Organised and presented by the European Cartoon Centre in Kruishoutem, the exhibition opens on Friday 2nd October at Galway Chamber, Commerce House, Merchants Road, from 3pm. Admission is free.

Luc Descheemaeker, aka “O-Sekoer” will be among those displaying work at the exhibition. - One of Belgium’s best-known cartoonists, he is winner of 300+ international awards since 1978, including the World Press Cartoon contest in Portugal in 2018. He gives a public talk on his distinguished cartooning career and his humorous photography at the Galway Mechanics Institute, 4 Middle Street, on Monday 5th October at 8pm.

above: Bruegel Patrick Heymans

Meanwhile, the challenges faced by women in this cartooning will be examined by Saskia Gheysens of the European Cartoon Centre in her public talk, Are Women Cartoonists Different? (Galway Chamber, Saturday 3rd October, 3pm).

Nicolas Vadot, while a French citizen, has lived in Brussels since he was 17. He publishes around 600 cartoons a year and regularly appears on francophone Belgian TV and radio as well as on France 24 for Cartooning for Peace.

He brings to the Festival, Putting The World At a Distance To Make It More Bearable (Galway Chamber, Saturday 3rd October, 2pm). Vadot will give a 40-minute presentation, followed by a Q&A session, displaying cartoons spanning his long career from the collapse of the Berlin Wall, when Vadot started cartooning as an art school student in Brussels, to today’s challenges of Trumpism, climate change and AI.

“The participation of more than 20 Belgian cartoonists brings a distinctive European perspective to Galway Cartoon Festival 2026,” said the Festival’s international liaison, Catherine Gagneux. “A wonderful chance to explore Belgium’s rich tradition of satire, humour and visual storytelling, while sharing the cultural connections and wit between Belgian and Irish cartooning.”

Admission to all the above events is free. For more information see galwaycartoonfestival.ie.

All images courtesy of Galway Cartoon Festival. 

Main image Lucky Luke Wouter Van Ghysegem.

above: Bruegel Bert Vanstiphout