Reinvented Nature: Materials, Structures, and Imagination
An exhibition featuring Paul Bourgeois, Jef Faes, and Jef Gysen.
De Werft in Geel invites you to a fascinating exhibition where three artists, each with a unique perspective on material and form, bring nature back to life.
Paul Bourgeois, Jef Faes, and Jef Gysen share a fascination for the tangible and the ephemeral, but their approaches range from poetic and scientific to architectural. Together, they deeply explore the boundaries between nature and art.
The connection to the Kempen region is strongly present.
Jef Gysen and Jef Faes were both born and raised in Geel. As instructors at the Art Department of the Heilig Graf in Turnhout, Paul Bourgeois, and later Jef Faes, have significantly influenced many contemporary artists.
Paul Bourgeois (1941, Wijnegem)
Lives and works in Wijnegem.
Paul Bourgeois’s art seems to abandon traditional painting yet remains essentially rooted in it. His work emerges from compressed posters, lead, cardboard, and linen—materials collected and weathered by the elements.
These seemingly discarded materials are reanimated into artworks with a renewed soul.
Bourgeois's signature technique involves a subtle, almost monastic perforation of the material’s surface. Thousands of meticulously placed punctures create a new poetic visual language, preserving and enhancing the material’s fragility. The relief, visible under oblique lighting, gives his work an almost archaeological dimension. They stand as silent witnesses to a dialogue between decay and rebirth.
Jef Faes (1972, Geel)
Lives and works in Eindhout.
At the intersection of art and science, Jef Faes explores the perfect patterns and structures of nature. His work focuses on the beauty of geometric forms, such as the honeycomb, translating them into abstract compositions that are as technical as they are poetic.
For his sculptures, Faes often uses recycled materials, combining them with his expertise in color theory and optical illusions.
His vibrant tempera-on-panel pieces and sculptures, frequently adorned with intricate moiré patterns, appear to move and transform depending on the viewer’s perspective.
Known for his multidisciplinary approach and experimental methods, Faes has even involved bees in constructing his artworks in previous projects. This scientific precision continues to influence his current work, masterfully depicting the harmony of natural systems.
Jef Gysen (1969, Geel)
Lives and works in Sinaai.
For this exhibition, Jef Gysen presents a unique series of paintings inspired by his observations of a meticulously crafted model: an artificial forest. This model served as his laboratory, allowing him to study light, texture, and perspective before translating them onto his canvases.
His paintings create an illusion of space and architecture. Gysen plays with the interaction between the concrete and the abstract, where the artificial forest becomes a metaphor for our relationship with nature—controlled, constructed, yet full of life and poetry.
His works exude an unseen dynamism of lines and forms, inviting the viewer to look deeper into what seems familiar. Through this choreography of chaos and structure, a world emerges that is both fictional and recognizable.
Three Artists, One Shared Quest
The exhibition brings together three artists, each engaging in their own dialogue with nature. Paul Bourgeois delves into the past of materials, Jef Faes highlights the harmony of patterns and structures, and Jef Gysen constructs a fictional natural world that challenges reality. Together, they create a universe that invites discovery, wonder, and reflection.
Practical Information
The exhibition runs from January 18 to March 23 at De Werft, Markt, Geel.
Open on Fri.–Sat.–Sun. from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
The festive opening takes place on Saturday, January 18, starting at 3:00 PM.
Introduction by Louis Hulstaert:
Louis Hulstaert holds a PhD in Ancient Studies and Art History from KU Leuven, specializing in Iran and the Ancient Near East. Additionally, he is a graduate in Ancient Oriental Languages (Akkadian, Aramaic, Old Persian).
He also taught art history at the Heilig Graf in Turnhout.