07 april 2025, Emily Van Driessen
Seeds of renewal: Ewoud Viane’s debut exhibition 'sunny-side-up'
In his first solo exhibition at PONTI Gallery in Antwerp, Ewoud Viane (b. 1996, Ghent) invites us into a world that feels as radiant as it is layered. 'sunny-side-up' is both a celebration of springtime lightness and the result of a years-long process in which material experimentation and visual language slowly came into bloom. “It should be cheerful, light. I just want people to feel happy when they see my work,” he says. In an interview for GalleryViewer, Ewoud shares more about his first solo show, his technique, and how this moment marks the start of something new.
A technique rooted in curiosity
At first glance, Viane’s work might not reveal its roots in the world of design and carpentry. “I studied interior design,” he explains, “and we had classes in materials and construction. I also trained as a cabinetmaker. It taught me how things work, how materials respond to one another. That fascination never left.”
Ewoud Viane, Candelabra Tree 2, 2025, PONTI
His artistic journey began with large, self-made textile cabinets – sculptural objects made by combining fabric and epoxy. A chance experiment using a painter’s door led him down a new path: when he pulled an epoxy-coated piece of fabric away from the surface, it reminded him of peeling a sticker off a wall and taking some paint with it. That gesture, of lifting and imprinting, became the basis of a layered process he has spent the past few years refining. “It all started with pure experimentation,” he says. “I spent over a year trying to figure out how to guide it, how to let an image emerge through layers, materials, and patience.” How he constructs his images exactly, he prefers to keep between the lines.
From botanical drawings to a personal visual language
Ewoud’s earliest works were drawn from classical botanical illustrations. “I was still searching for technique, for form,” he says. “Copying from something existing helped me make it my own.”
Those early studies, made in admiration of the meticulous drawings created before photography existed, still echo through his current work. But now the results have grown looser, more playful. “The plants and flowers in my work are still inspired by nature, but I manipulate them. The colours, the proportions, the shapes – they’re all mine now. It’s really become a world of my own, rooted in fantasy.” That shift also reflects a deeper evolution in his practice: “At first it was a search for the right technique. Now it’s a search for my own visual language.”
Ewoud Viane, Umbrella Tree, 2024, seen here in 'sunny-side-up' in PONTI
The sunny side and the other side
The title of the exhibition sounds like a smile: sunny-side-up. “It obviously refers to a fried egg,” Ewoud laughs, “and to the start of a sunny spring, but it’s also a nod to the final result.” What you see on the front is the ‘sunny side’, the cheerful side. The back reveals a mirror image, a residual trace of the process, which remains unseen by the viewer but nonetheless helps shape the work. That hidden side carries the marks of how the image came into being.
Watching a flower unfold
Among the works in this exhibition is something new for Ewoud: a kinetic piece that brings movement into his practice. For this, he created a praxinoscope, a 19th-century optical device built from a rotating cylinder lined with mirrors.
“You have to spin it yourself,” he says. “That bit of effort makes the experience more intimate.” Inside, eleven sequential images of a Madonna lily appear to bloom, petal by petal, before gently closing again. It feels like a tribute to the unhurried pace at which something reveals itself, an invitation to see not just the image, but its becoming.
Much like early botanical drawings once aimed to capture and understand nature before photography, the praxinoscope seems to echo a longing to animate stillness. Whether consciously or not, Ewoud taps into that same impulse: to observe in phases, with care for each moment in-between.
Ewoud Viane, Praxinoscope Madonna Lily, 2025, PONTI
Each invitation to 'sunny-side-up' includes more than a date and a location – inside the envelope are wildflower seeds, chosen to welcome bees and butterflies. “It’s spring,” Ewoud says. “It felt right to sow something real.”
This gesture mirrors the spirit of the show – not just a celebration of renewal, but the beginning of a new artistic path. “I don’t know what comes next,” he smiles. “This show feels like a starting point. The seeds are in the soil – now I’ll wait and see what grows, and where the wind carries me.”
Ewoud Viane, Madonna Lily 1+11, 2024, PONTI
