Construction I and Construction II are on show in the Nylonfabrik in Sint-Niklaas / Belgium until 22 of October.
The finisage will be held 17 of October. During this event I will be working live on a drawing from 10am till 6pm.
Adress: Lindenstraat 90 Sint Niklaas
At the beginning of September 2015, I travelled 1400 km to the charming Tuscan village of Volterra for a an intensive one-week sculpting course.
Even though I've actually got a master's in Sculpting, I've never really carved in stone. During my training and after that, I mainly focussed on installations, drawings and performances. So this week in Italy was my first real experience with working in stone. We've worked in alabaster from the Volterra quarries and marble from the Carrara quarries.
The resulting piece can only be presented as an exercise, not as a finished work. The slideshow above shows the process of carving a first corner and after that 1/8 of a sphere. My interest in geometry proved an asset: a nicely rounded surface can only be reached through facets, like the faces of a diamond. By gradually working from larger to smaller facets, the stone eventually curves. The final step is then to sand the surface.
After the 1/8 sphere was finished, I started freewheeling a bit, drawing on and cutting into the marble, experimenting with shapes and techniques.
The final 3 photos show the sculpture exercise in its current shape. Now to buy a set of chisels so I can work some more on it in Belgium.
A more personal note.
I’ve always made installations and sculptures as well as drawings. You can obviously see this on this website. Both art forms influence each other in ways that not even I can always predict. The outcomes of this dialogue are part of what propels my work and its evolution forward. But no matter if I’m drawing or making installations: I always feel a sculptor.
Very recently, for the on-site works made for DOK, I’ve experimented with the techniques and shapes I’ve developed in the spatial studies on a much larger scale. The work was made in polystyrene for practical reasons and will be transferred into concrete later. I really enjoyed this whole process and feel ready to take this further.
I’m excited to announce I will be taking a stone-carving course in Carrara, Italy, to study how to transfer these shapes to stones and marbles. This is a logical extension of the very material aspect in my work, from the heavily grained paper I work on for my drawings to the sandstone used on Construction I (and the Belgian blue stone for Construction II which is in production).
I will continue to work on all my on-going artistic projects; the “untitled” drawings, the spatial studies, the Construction series – and of course continue to evolve and develop new work.
Next stop: Carrara marble.
In Ghent, the first of May traditionally marks the opening of the festival season. Throughout the summer, the city is host to a range of festivities, culminating in the Gentse Feesten, a ten day city-wide festival.
The festival to kick off the season is DOK – a five-month freezone for art, recreation and creative manoeuvres, at the old industrial harbour of Ghent. This year, artist platform BLANCO invited me to make an on-site intervention with one of the buildings.
I made three works for the site, which cover three of the building’s (obsolete) windows.
There is a white geometric sculpture, which almost seems to be growing from the old concrete, and two freehand drawings on whiteboard echoing the shapes of the sculpture.
The sculpting process of the carving followed the same as with my on-going spatial studies: starting from a solid block and cutting away material. Since this one had to be mounted and fixed to the window - and be weather proof - I decided to cut it from a cubic meter block of Styrofoam, which was then painted white.
It was my first experience with a more traditional form of sculpting at this size. I’m now exploring possibilities of having this work cast in solid concrete, and am looking to make more works like this in other materials.
My work can be viewed at DOK Ghent from 1 to 31 May.
I’m very proud to announce that the Paris exhibition at Oneiro Gallery has a solo follow-up at the offices of Homère Avocats.
About 15 works are exhibited in their Paris offices.
There was a private opening of the exhibition where I got the chance to talk about my work to the lawyer’s clients, giving some of them a private tour.
The works will be displayed for two months, but unfortunately the exhibition is not open to the public.
TumultInGent is a Ghent one-day art manifestation, organized by student radio broadcaster Tumult. For the third year in a row, they invited me to join the 200+ artists and musicians performing and exhibiting throughout the city.
I decided to show Construction I for the very first time, since my exhibition spot seemed ideally suited. A glass tower overlooking the city’s towers really showcased the work in sandstone, echoing historic architecture and playful children’s building blocks.
Tumult in Ghent had 17.000 visitors this year: an amazing feat, mainly thanks to the organising talents of Bert De Geyter.
I was doing a bit of clean-up in my atelier last week and found these.
I took these pictures with my old Nikkormat camera while still in art school, probably in 2006. I never did anything with them back then, but they mark the first time I ever considered my wooden play blocks for artistic purposes.
Construction I is the latest execution of work that builds on these roots.
Proper art needs a proper photo shoot.
New pictures and new work coming up soon!
The exhibition "Did you say Abstract" opened in Paris the 4th of December, collecting work from Conrad Willems, John Franzen and Gyula Sági.
Conrad Willems is showing seven drawings including some very recent ones not shown before.
The three exhibiting artists are friends. They're showing work that refers to "serialism", using techniques like consecutive repetitions and repeat-drawings in freehand black ink. Together with Gryanne Stunnenberg, they form an artist group called "Serialists", promoting the artistic movement of Serialism since 2014.
You can visit the gallery in the charming Le Marais neighbourhood from Tuesday to Saturday, 10:30 to 19:00.
Conrad will be visiting regularly, so don't hesitate to let him know if you're visiting as well!
For more information, visit Oneiro's website or Facebook, or the dedicated Serialist page to discover the other artists.
