Two exhibitions
dal 19/9/2008 al 7/11/2008
Segnalato da
19/9/2008
Two exhibitions
Netwerk Center for Contemporary Art, Aalst
Much of Neal Beggs' work has its origin in a specific form of adventure: rock-climbing. Attraction of peaks and fascination with the void are reverberating through its details. Xavier Martin constructs paintings by means of careful brush strokes and successive layers of glacis. The absorbing and reflective qualities of paint are elaborated in a wide range of stylistic finesses.
Neal Beggs
Belgium is Not a Road
Much of Neal Beggs’ work has its origins in a specific form of adventure: rock-climbing. The attraction of peaks and the fascination with the void reverberate through its smallest details. Beggs’ body of works is concentrated around a number of peak moments Jean-Marc Huitorel writes f.e: Each piece [functions] as exhibition, each exhibition [is] conceived as a work. (The Analogy of the Rock, 2004). They illustrate the focal point of his activities: the moment of contemplation, the ‘gaping’ moment which comes before action and completion.
In Belgium Neal Beggs realized projects for BruxellesBravo (Dear Prudence, Mont des Arts, 2007) and in Le Bonheur (Happy(n/x) Starmap, 2007). He also had shows in Saint-Nazaire (Le Grand Café), Nantes (Zoo Galerie, FRAC des Pays de la Loire), Paris and Glasgow (Tramway). In the fall of 2008 Neal Beggs participates in group exhibitions in BE-PART in Waregem (http://www.be-part.be) and in the gallery Elisa Platteau.
Xavier Martin
Huit
Simultaneously with Belgium is Not a Road there is an exhibition of the Brussels’ based painter Xavier Martin. Martin constructs paintings by means of opaque brush strokes and transparent layers of glacis. The absorbing and reflective qualities of paint are elaborated in a wide range of stylistic finesses: on canvases and supports of a usually reduced format, he creates alienating renditions of an atmospheric depth. Recently, he completed an extensive and impressive series of paintings in delicate nuances of white.
Blurring boundaries between volume and void, Martin’s paintings refer to the idea of the landscape as a reflection of a state of mind, with subdued hints towards existentialist thinking. Lars Kwakkenbos: But the landscape is always there, a landscape that always frees itself of this support. Getting past the support is the issue. (...) On one of the pages of a note-book he wrote in 1998, we already find the following words: Par delà tout, il y a cette fumée. (...) The main thing now is to look around in the paint.
Xavier Martin was a laureate of the 'Young Belgian Painters Award' in 2003. Since then, his work has been shown a.o. in Le Botanique in Brussels and in Le Centre d'art contemporain du Luxembourg Belge. In 2006 he was invited to show work in his homeland South Korea in the group exhibition Vanitas.
Opening Sat 20.09.2008, 2 pm
Netwerk Center for Contemporary Art
Houtkaai z/n B-9300 - Aalst
Wed till Sat, 2 pm > 6 pm