Opening reception: Sunday 3 September, 3 pm
Speech by Philippe Van Cauteren, artistic director of S.M.A.K., Museum of Contemporary Art Ghent
Our opening coincides with the opening of Philippe Van Snick at gallery Tatjana Pieters, within walking distance from the gallery.
Click here for the shortest walking distance between the two galleries.
The parking lot of AZ Sint Lucas is a good and moderately priced parking opportunity right in the middle of the two galleries.
For over 35 years Mario De Brabandere (1963, Tielt, Belgium) has been steadily building up an impressive oeuvre that mainly consists of drawings, paintings, sculptures and studies on paper. In his work he investigates varieties of combinations and compositions, with geometrical shapes, perspective, volumes and motifs, in a palette of mostly bold colours. The more recent works tend to stay untitled, but the subjects are legible in all their simplicity. The drawings or paintings reprise familiar motifs and objects from cityscapes, such as vehicles or flags. His work also bears formal references to art history, such as Giotto’s static compositions and organising principles.
De Brabandere’s practice consists of a process of a spontaneous and continuous creation. This leads to series of drawings in which he explores form, composition and combinations of colour. In recent years it is striking that the works are increasingly purely abstract. The paintings, too, often consist of taut planes and forms: in them, the initiating traces can however still be sensed in tentative pencil strokes.
According to the artist, the material itself fulfils half of the work. His attention goes to the particularities of the wood and paper he works on, but also to their previous usage or history. It is the material that spurs De Brabandere to work with it. And in so doing, De Brabandere wholly trusts the power of his own intuition. Thinking doesn’t ever get in the way.
On Sunday, September 3rd, 2017, Mario De Brabandere’s second solo exhibition at Kristof De Clercq gallery will open, bearing the title: ‘I AM GOOD AT NOT THINKING’. De Brabandere will show exclusively new work in a lucid installation that emanates a quiet strength and serenity. The exhibition is open until Sunday October 22nd 2017.
