I've entered The National Expo - Vote Now!
I've just submitted A Garden Beneath the Skin to The National Expo, the annual competition run by museumPASSmusées that puts hidden art talent in the spotlight. This year's edition is hosted in partnership with Botanique in Brussels, and the theme takes its cue directly from the venue's history as a botanical garden: natural. Artists have been asked to respond to a nature that never stands still, one that grows, migrates and adapts again and again.
It felt like the right opportunity to enter A Garden Beneath the Skin
A Garden Beneath the Skin / Een tuin onder de huid
'A Garden Beneath the Skin' (2026) by Kaye Outhwaite, Acrylic Painting on three wooden panels, Wooden panel 1: 200mm x 200mm x 20mm, wooden panel 2: 200mm x 150mm x 20mm, wooden panel 3: 200mm x 200mm x 20mm. © 2026 Kaye Outhwaite. All Rights Reserved.
A Garden Beneath the Skin is painted in acrylic across three wooden panels, built from pastel colour, calendula and hyacinth flowers, and silver marking the places on my body that have changed through transition. It shows a trans man's body as both fractured and whole, drawing on my own transition and on the "Protect the Dolls" movement against transphobic violence, alongside a nod to Hans Bellmer's Doll series.
The theme fits the work more closely than I expected when I first painted it. Transition, at its core, is a natural process: growth, migration, adaptation, the same forces that move through anything living that refuses to stay as it was. The flowers in the piece grow behind and through the ribs as if the inner work of transformation is being made visible, and the three panels divide the surface without ever quite containing what moves across it, much like nature does with any boundary put in its way.
Entries for The National Expo are judged by both the public and a professional jury, with selected work going on to public exhibition. I don't know yet whether A Garden Beneath the Skin will make the cut, but I'm glad to have it out in the world and under consideration. I would deeply appreciate votes from those who appreciate this artwork here
I'll share an update here as soon as I hear more!
