Gardening the Forest Stijn Cole / Elise Peroi 1/2024 @ Irène Laub Gallery

This duo exhibition places the work of Stijn Cole in dialogue with the textile works of Elise Peroi. Both were inspired by the other’s practice to create new works. In Cole’s case, this results in a new series of paintings in which the canvas was given a prominent role just as a side action, in Elise’s case there is just more color in her latest works.

Emergent Invites is a small art fair in Veurne based art Center/gallery Emergent. Irène Laub gallery presented my works in combination with the work of Bernard Villers in one of the rooms.

Le weekend, Stijn Cole / Gert Verhoeven – Salon Blanc Oostende

In the project space Salon Blanc in Ostend, run by Els Wuyts, I presented 2 folding screens that entered into a dialogue with the bronze massage sculptures of Gert Verhoeven.

Mémoires – Kasteelstraat 1 Watou

In Watou, I presented in the duo exhibition together with Yves Velter for the first time some marble “souvenirs” the chunks of Marbre de Rance hang on the wall and are sawn off at eye level. The surface obtained has been polished so that the marble’s pattern becomes visible. Unlike minerals, for example, I place this surface horizontally and out of sight. The fragments become sculptures and refer to the landscape through the horizontal plane. In the exhibition I also showed 3 new 1:1 drawings and the work Fold#3.

SSTT – D’apostrof Meigem

In this duo show with Stief Desmet I showed bronze souvenirs for the first time, these replicas of an oak branch contained tumors of a gall wasp. I also showed a first series of “souvenirs” on A3 where I combined a black and white image of a landscape with a color map of the same landscape filled in in oil paint. These were based on walks in Scotland, Forges & Seloignes.
A third type of work were the “souvenirs” where I give structure to a photograph of an uncontrolled wilderness by folding the image.

Intersecties – White House Gallery Lovenjoel

duo show with Greet Van Autgaerden

Variations sur les mêmes thèmes – BPS22 Charleroi

When I was invited to do something at BPS22 in Charleroi, I decided to enter into a dialogue with the Calais series by Marthe Wery. In 1996, she made a series of 17 monochromes in blue and grey tones that she called Calais. Part of that original series, supplemented with more recent works from the same series, are part of the museum’s collection. A number of things interested me in this work, Marthe Wéry allows to play with the presentation of the series. With her abstract works whose colours are chosen intuitively she evokes the association with the sea, without an image she creates a navy. Parts of the series were sold and supplemented with new works of a different format, so that the series evolved over time. I decided to make a new series of 17 paintings based on the real colours of Calais and to mix them with the works of Wéry. During the exhibition, “Variations sur les mêmes thèmes”,  we, Pierre-Olivier Rollin and I changed the arrangement 4 times.

60 Journées d’été – Roger Raveelmuseum

During the summer of 1976 Marthe Wéry (1930 – 2005), a famous Belgian painter, made a series of works called “60 working days – summer of ’76”. During 60 days she made series of each time 3 drawings and a blank page. She lived 6 km of my studio in the village Macquenoise. 40 years later I made a tribute to her and that series of works. 60 summer sunsets I captured the landscape and transpose 60 Timescapes of it. Each time the same landscape, each time from 19:00 to 24:00. Every time again different.

Halfway – ICC Brussels

At the Italian Cultural Center in Brussels, I exhibited 4 paintings that referenced 4 moments during a sunrise in Vittel. We chose Vittel as a location because this city is exactly in the middle between Laura Viale and my home. During the sunrise I photographed the landscape at 4 moments in 4 places and in quadrangle. The 4 paintings were hung in corresponding places in the room in exactly the same direction.

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Lumiere Matière – ARBA ESA Brussels

At the Arba Esa art college, I curated an exhibition of student work with Laura Viale. We presented a series of works of our own in the courtyard and in the tour. I showed some colorcapes that all depicted winter landscapes and an ice slab in the courtyard. The opening was on the first day of spring.

Provincial Prize 2010 – Caermersklooster Ghent

In 2010 Hannes Van Severen won the provincial Visual Arts Prize of East Flanders, I was 2nd. We got a duo show in the Caermersklooster, now the Kunsthal.