In the spectacle-driven carnival of the contemporary art world, one of the most transgressive artists today is a master of quiet. Michaël Borremans works in film, photography, and sculpture, but the Belgian artist is best known for his oil paintings, where he blends the traditions of a forgotten past and the tremors of the modern psyche, resulting in seductive and disturbing mindscapes, somewhere between myth and realism. Working out of a handful of studios sprinkled around his home country, Borremans has been finishing up a series of paintings that will be shown this summer at David Zwirner Gallery in London, following an exhibition of older works at the Prada Foundation in Shanghai. He’s also rumored to have a cameo in director Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming film Queer, based on William S. Burroughs’ novel. To add fuel to the fire, the Italian director traveled all the way to Ghent to chat with the artist in his painting studio, before heading to lunch.