Tuesday, March 28, 2023

WORTH MORE/WORTH LESS at K.L.8, Brussels 25.03.2023

For this group exhibition, we will show artists whose work reflects on the concept of ‘value’ in art. In what sense can you say that an artwork possesses worth? And does this need to be limited to monetary and material value, or can art have other kinds of value, such as social value, spiritual value, emotional value, ...?

Participating arists: Andrea Balladelli, Chris Dennis, Daniëlle Raspé, Giovanni Casu, JaZoN Frings, jo+kapi, Jorden Boulet, Lea & Adrian, Maria Konschake, Nathaniel Trost, Obed Vleugels, Pancho Westendarp, Rabten Tenzin, Ringo Lisko, Simone Marconi & Yique

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

support group. Gallery Nostrum. Vernissage: March 11, 2023

support group' is an exhibition featuring the work of Francesco Battistello (IT), Laura Dauchet (FR) and Stefano Moras (IT).

Three artists explore the existence or absence of 'support',

figuratively and literally in their work.


March 11 - April 29, 2023.

Vernissage March 11. 13hr -18hr.



















Sunday, February 5, 2023

Gallery Nostrum, (BE). bodies: noun / verb. Vernissage 14, 01, 2023.

bodies: noun / verb.

noun

plural noun: bodies.

The physical structure, including the bones, flesh, and organs, of a person or an animal.

verb

3rd person present: bodies

To give material form to something abstract.









January 14 – February 18, 2023.

The work of Inge Dompas (BE) is about the transiency and volatility of life.

The transient figures she observes depict the anonymity of the masses as well as the rare and precious moments of true contact and intimacy. www.ingedompas.com

Caroline Ledoux’s (BE) current focus is our impossibility as a species to exist in the world. Deserted landscapes peopled only with silhouettes, buildings or armchairs serve as fossils of our existence. Her work places us on the threshold of a self-regulating world that chooses to continue without man. instagram.com/ledoux.caroline

The photographs of Charles Lemaire (BE) concentrate on the human body and skin (tattoos, scars, body modifications, aging). With these works, the focus is intensified to the point where the flesh becomes a landscape and the marks of human inhabitants and interaction are clear. www.charleslemaire.eu

The film director Antoine Vans (BE) uses painting as an antidote to some of the lighter aspects of his “other profession”. His canvases embody the frustrations he would otherwise be unable to capture and express. instagram.com/antoine.vans

In describing some of the pieces included in this show, Ehrling White (Ca/US) paraphrased a text by David Hinton. That there is a bridge linking the body itself and the act of art-making. The corporeal form that creates, or lives, and sheds its skin. The leaving it behind, is a natural process. Maybe art making, being very human and laden with history, thoughts, afterthoughts, and second thoughts, is a neurotic attempt to calcify some fraction of it all, give it a body, like a fossil, for others to make of what they wish, or not, long after we’ve moved on. www.ehrlingwhite.com


 

















Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Avant la Lettre. Vernissage at K.L.8, Brussels 29.10.22

Avant la lettre

OPENING: 29 October 2022, 18h

Open 30 October, 1, 4, 5, 6 November 2022, 13h - 18h

From press release: Written Word and Image: these are two fundamental components of the known history of art. Both possess different powers, connotations, impediments, advantages, and have different ways of establishing meaning. Whenever they are brought together in a work of art, tension is inevitable, and throughout various cultures their relationship has taken on surprising shapes.



 























For our newest exhibition, Avant la lettre, we will show the work of 19 artists who incorporate (hand)writing / type / text into their practice, and who explore the interaction between the written word and visual art.

 

The Image came first, without a doubt. Our ancestors left paintings on cave walls, carved animal bone into effigies, thousands of years before the invention of the first writing systems. But writing got the upper hand, myths and holy Scripture came to determine how human beings related to their surroundings and to each other. We explored the world and aimed to capture all of creation in taxonomies, botanical treatises, laws of physics. Only the supposed truth was ever written down.

 

In the Modern age however, the power balance started to shift. The written word no longer maintained its precedence over other modes of representation, and the author (who was of course white and male) was  no longer accepted as the all-determining voice, whether in academia, film or journalism. Now, under the aegis of new media like television and the internet, the Image appears to have emancipated itself, and has gained an unprecedented ubiquity in all parts of the cultural landscape.

 

None of us have been taught as children how to interpret images, but reading and writing on the other hand are acquired skills. Does this mean that looking at a painting requires more spontaneity? Is reading more challenging? Can written words offer more meaning than images? We are curious what associations or prejudices contemporary artists have about these two extraordinary human devices. What are their respective powers and shortcomings? And what processes are set in motion when the two are combined into one single piece of art?


































With works by Algolit, Andrey Rylov and Maxim Mezentsev, Ash Bowland, Christina Mitrentse, Christine van Poucke, Daniel Arthuus, Daniëlle Raspé, Éanna Mac Cana, Gabriel René Franjou, Hyunbok Lee, Jing Wang, Laurence Petrone, Laurent Fiorentino, Leda Woloshyn, Maarten Inghels, Marija Rinkevičiūtė, Martina Stella, Oliver Doe & Teresa Weißert.


K.L.8