This is the story of two brothers who took very different paths, only to find themselves working side by side once again in a show in Amsterdam. In 2015 Renate, Léopold, Till and Alex were present when opening their show at Torch gallery in 2015 Comme une grappe estivale d’hélices de Pise.
This time around we are extremely happy and proud Léopold RABUS and Till RABUS will both be present for the opening.
To understand the massive paintings, lining the walls of TORCH gallery, you have to step back into a giant, wall-less childhood studio in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. For over a decade, this single floor wasn't just a place to work. It was a loud, breathing ecosystem of meetings, late-night parties, and nonstop creation. The brothers didn't just paint there, they lived there together with their parents. Léopold decided it was time to "reattach the umbilical cord," moving his workspace back to his parents' garden just a hundred meters down the path, where his mother still shares a studio on the same grounds. Till packed up and headed to a different space outside the family home but close enough.
Early in their global careers, they met their first major gallerist: Jérôme Jacobs, the director of Aeroplastics in Brussels. Jacobs, known for his atypical, nomadic approach and sharp sense of humor, became a close family friend. When he began showing the whole family together, the brothers jokingly worried it was a bit "too much" a total, unrelenting "Rabus Show." Yet, this family show at Aeroplastics championing their resolute, multidisciplinary approach only sharpened their individual styles.
Both Till and Léopold work from a shared, highly rigorous methodology. They construct a physical, three-dimensional reality out of everyday objects, freeze it with a photographic snapshot, and project that image onto large scale canvases. Tracing the contours with a pencil and mapping out the shadows, they place themselves in the direct lineage of painters like Hans Holbein, who first caught onto the magic of lenses and projected light.
Yet, as Till explains, "What makes realism so beautiful is that it is always an interpretation anyway." A camera lens might capture a static fact, but the human hand changes it entirely. The brothers share a radical stance on the art market's obsession with clean categories: the boundary between abstraction and figuration is completely paper-thin.
Till RABUS
Till constructs pop surrealist still-life’s through childhood inspired tinkering, building, and hands on assembly. Behind these seductive compositions lies a subtle commentary on consumer waste. In a process he calls precious detritus, he gathers full garbage bags and carefully sorts through consumer waste to mimic traditional Japanese Ikebana floral arrangements. As Till remarks, "If you photograph trash, it remains trash, whereas if you paint it, it becomes precious because of the time dedicated to it."
The initial stage of setting up a composition is highly empirical, exhausting, and intensely cerebral. But once the coordinates are locked and the paint begins to hit the canvas, the tension breaks. The application of color becomes a meditative haven. It is a slow, rhythmic routine: sitting down with a small cup of coffee, "dabbling away with paint," and letting the mind wander.
Till RABUS + Léopold RABUS
Having left school, with what they describe as massive educational gaps, the brothers used this endless painting time to rebuild their personal general knowledge from scratch. While their brushes move across the canvas, they listen. They consume entire audiobooks (from the works of Henry James to the complete Bible) and leave the radio running for hours.
The calm, focused energy of those solitary hours is what remains in their work. They have built visual stories that are entirely legible to anyone walking through the door, yet rich enough to invite multiple readings, hidden contradictions, and deeply personal interpretations.