Guy Rombouts 1949

Lives in Antwerpen. Works in Antwerpen.

Represented by:

Annie Gentils Gallery

Guy Rombouts (1949, lives and works in Antwerp).
Since the early 1980s, Rombouts has blurred the existing boundaries between words and objects. The idea of having objects speak for themselves, acts as a drive and utopic horizon behind his artistic practice. The result is a body of work that is idiosyncratic, poetic as well as conceptual. The artist’s very own bounded set of ideas has become a kind of art-producing machine: his ‘concepts’ make his works come about more or less automatically. The result is never egotistic, but invariably particular and tactile.Rombouts’ work — he is the son of a printer and trained to be a typographer — is rooted in a fascination with the shapes and the stuff language is made of. In the early ‘80s, when he made what could be viewed as his ‘primal’ work, he collected objects whose names consisted of three letters, and exhibited them in alphabetical order. Rombouts is probably best known for his Azart alphabet, which he developed in 1984 with his partner Monica Droste (1958-1998). The line-based alphabet allows words to take on an endless array of two/three-dimensional shapes. Ever since it was first designed, it has served as a deliberately coincidental procedure for creating objects, sculptures, paintings etc. Inspired by Azart, Rombouts has recently created new, graphic ways of translating words into images. Using the website www.azart.be, everyone can generate images in Azart.Guy Rombouts, (1949-, Geel, Belgium) seems to make a comment on how the flatness of letters and words can create a reality and make that reality non-existing without the words, in line with what the “linguistic relativity principle” suggests. Rombouts does this by inventing a new alphabet; the Azart, a name that refers to A-Z art, but also to the French word “hasard” meaning coincidence. In Azart each letter is translated by a corresponding line, on the basis of the first letter of the word which describes the line. A is angular, B is barred, C is curve, D is deviation and Z is a zigzag line. When the lines are linked together closed forms or word-images appear. What is going on quite literally on the paper when forming Azart words, goes on in our mind when forming realities of alphabetic words. The arbitrary letters of the alphabet also obtain meaning in our mind. Words written in Azart visually define themselves, forming isles of meanings, while words of the alphabet are defined by means of other words. These words, however, are formed by the same letters as the word they define. A circle of definitions are formed, referring again literally to the Azart circled words.
Guy Rombouts, seems to make a comment on how the flatness of letters and words can create a reality and make that reality non-existing without the words, in line with what the “linguistic relativity principle” suggests. Rombouts does this by inventing a new alphabet; the Azart, a name that refers to A-Z art, but also to the French word “hasard” meaning coincidence. In Azart each letter is translated by a corresponding line, on the basis of the first letter of the word which describes the line. A is angular, B is barred, C is curve, D is deviation and Z is a zigzag line. New works on paper with the AZART colours will be on view.
Guy Rombouts (1949, lives and works in Antwerp). - www.azart.be

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Guy Rombouts
° 1949 Geel (BE) - Lives and works in Antwerp
http://www.azart.be/azartstart.html
Education:
HIGRO, Hoger Instituut voor Grafisch Onderwijs in Gent, 1970
Sint Lucas - Vrije Grafiek, Gent
Price Marcel Broodthaers 2021

Solo Exhibitions:
2020
- Prijs Marcel Broodthaers - Galeries Bailli, Brussel
2018
- Guy Rombouts - Les beaux contes font les bons amis,
les mots comptent pour les faux amis., Annie Gentils gallery, Antwerp (BE)
- Guy Rombouts – solo presentation ARCO MADRID - Annie Gentils Gallery
2015
- Guy Rombouts - Tot-, Integr- En Helemaal, Annie Gentils Gallery, Antwerpen
2013
- Guy Rombouts - Johan Gelper, Galerie EL, Welle (BE)
- Jens, Hordaland Art Centre, Bergen, Norway
2012
- Le Grand Atelier, MAC's, Grand Hornu (BE)
- Cit Art Foundation, Neues Museum, Nürnberg (D)
- Lost & Found, Error One, Antwerpen
2011
Guy Rombouts, het Begijnhof, de bibliotheek en Huis van Winckel, Dendermonde (BE)
2009
Guy Rombouts - Since Life Is Short Our Faces Must Be Long, Annie Gentils Gallery, Antwerpen (BE)
2008
LEEGTOTGEEL, CC De Werft, Geel (B)
2004
Leo Copers / Guy Rombouts / Roskamstraat 13, ING Antwerpen-ING Kortrijk - ING Liège (B)
2001
De Haas springt uit de gracht waar men dat 't minst verwacht, Annie Gentils Gallery, Antwerpen (BE)
1998
Rombouts & Droste, M HKA, Antwerpen
1996
- In Situ, CC De Kern, Antwerpen (BE)
- Rombouts - Droste, Scryption, , Tilburg(NL)
1995
- Rombouts & Droste, Kunstcentrum De Boterhal, Hoorn (NL)
1994
- Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles
- Lumen Travo Galerie, Amsterdam
- Galerie Van Den Berge, Goes (NL)
1993
- Rombouts & Droste - L' a b c, Palais des Beaux Arts de Charleroi (BE) (curated by Laurent Busine)
- Guy Rombouts & Monika Droste, Kunstvereniging Diepenheim ( NL)
- Droste & Rombouts, Begijnhoftuin, Povinciaal Museum, Hasselt (B)
1992
- Rombouts - Droste, Galerie Jablonka, Köln (D)
- Par Azart, Museum Fodor, Amsterdam
1991
- Guy Rombouts & Monika Droste, Luc Deleu, Narcisse Tordoir, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo (NL)
- Betekende Ruimte, Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle (BE)
1990
- Dr. Zero op een Ziggurat - Rombouts & Droste, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam
1989
- Rombouts & Droste - All World Azart Writers Association– de AWAWA., Galerie Jablonka, Köln (D)
- Rombouts & Droste, Lumen Travo - Amsterdam (NL)
- Guy Rombouts & Narcisse Tordoir, Doulas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
1987
- 19de Biënnale (Guy Rombouts, Leo Copers, Marc Maet ) , Sao Paolo, Brazil
- Taal als grens, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerpen
- Belgische Sao Paoloselectie, SMAK, Gent
- Guillaume Bijl - Guy Rombouts, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
- Muziektermen Galerie del Cortile, Rome
1985
- Grande exposition de l’A , Galerij van de Academie , Waasmunster (BE)
- Guy Rombouts, Zeno X gallery, Antwerp
1984
- Galrij Ornis, Den Haag
1983
- Grande Exposition de l'A, Zeno X, Antwerpen
1982
- 1001 dingen van 18 fr., Zeno X Gallery, Antwerpen
- 26 tekens, Aurora, Antwerpen
- De vijf zinnen van Theodoor Rombouts, (beschreven met vijf lijsten drieletterwoorden die naar de vijf zintuigen verwijzen ), Den Appel, Amsterdam (curator Wies Smals)
- Zien, Vlaams Cultureel Centrum (De Brakke Grond), Amsterdam; Horen, Oey's etalage, Amsterdam; Voelen, galerie A, Amsterdam ; Ruiken, Other Books And So Archive, Amsterdam ; Smaken, De Appel, Amsterdam (NL)
1981
- 8112 Momenten, Hause Nieting ,Geldern ( D)
- WEG, House of Leo Copers & Martine 't Kint
1979
- 26 dingen en evenveel woorden: Ik heb geen zin. performance " Een plavei nathouden", Ruimte Z, Antwerpen

Group Exhibitions
2019
- “Een vertaling van de ene taal naar de andere”, CC Strombeek (BE)
- Feast of Fools, Kasteel van Gaasbeek (in samenwerking met Maria Broodthaers – Gilissen)
2017
Guy Rombouts & Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver, Tatjana Pieters, Ghent
2016
• Memories of Montevideo - The Antwerp Avant-Garde Scene in the Early ‘80s, MHKA, (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp) , Antwerp (BE)
• Urgent Conversations Athens - Antwerp, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST), Athens (in cooperation with MHKA Antwerp)
• Worlds of Words/Goods of Gods dialogue with Xu Bing, la Triennale di Milano
• 10 artists against the Wall, City of Antwerp (BE)
2015
• Group Exhibition – Parallel (Guillaume Bijl, Herman Van Ingelgem, Klaas Kloosterboer, Wesley Meuris, Hans Op de Beeck, Marc Rossignol)
• Chinese Utopias Revisited – The Elephants, BOZAR, Brussels (BE), (curated by Hans De Wolf & Xu Bing)
• Triennale Design Museum Milano
2014
• Return to Sender, Wiels, Brussels (BE)
• Master Mould and Copy Room, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China (curated by Hans De Wolf & Xu Bing)
2013
• CIT ART FOUNDATION (Guy Rombouts / Monika Droste - Katharina Fritsch - Peter Halley - Richard Prince - Andreas Slominski - Philip Taaffe -
Hubert Kiecol...), Neuesmuseum, Nürnberg (D)
• The collection as a character, M HKA, Antwerp (BE)
• Seismology of the Times, Annie Gentils Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
• Middle Gate Geel '13, Cultuurcentrum De Werft, Geel (BE), (Curated by Jan Hoet)
• The Gunshot, Marion de Cannière Gallery, Antwerp (BE)
2012
• Les Feux de l'amour, FRAC - Collection Aquitaine, Bordeaux (FR)
• Collecie XVII - Ten Oosten van 4°24', M HKA, Antwerp (BE)
• Lost and Found - Error One, Antwerp (BE)
• 2012 Le grand atelier, MAC's, Hornu

2011
• Grenzen, Sammlung Hofmann, Berlin
• In and Outside Writing, Voorkamer, Lier (BE)
2010
• Collectie XXVI: De Artefactum - jaren, M HKA, Antwerpen (BE)
• Rafa the Magician, Netwerk, Aalst (BE)
• A Whitsun Wedding, Galerie El, Welle
•
2009
• Der Himmel über Antwerpen, Galerie Annie Gentils, Antwerp (BE)
• Gagarin - The Artists in their Own Words, SMAK, Gent (BE)
• Jeugdzonde, Over opus één en opus min één - LLS 387, Antwerp (BE)
• Old Masters, Modern & Contemporary Art - Galerie Marie-Puck Broodthaers, Brussels (BE)
• 2nd Triennial of Contemporary Art, Fashion & Design, Hasselt (BE), curated by Koos Flinterman
2008
• Marcel Broodthaers & Friends, M HKA, Antwerp
• A Meeting Between The Tragic & The Funny, Middelheim Museum, Antwerp (BE)
• Honorons Honoré, Cultuurcentrum, Mechelen (BE)
2007
• Status Questionis, Annie Gentils Gallery (BE)
• Small Stuff Three (Meeting Bernd Lohaus) - Herman Teirlinckhuis, Beersel (BE)
• Vanaf Nu!..., LLS 387, Antwerp (BE)
• Who's got the big picture, M HKA, Antwerp (BE)
• Derniers Encodages - Letze Kodierungen, IKOB, Museum für Zeitgen¨ssische Kunst, Eupen (BE)
2006
• 25 years Zeno X , Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp (BE)
• Anagramme: The Mac's collection revisited, MAC 's Musée des Arts Contemporains, Grand Hornu (BE)
• BeTEKEN II, CC Hasselt, De Doos, Hasselt (BE)
• Dwaze Wijzen en Wijze Dwazen, Museum Dr. Guislain, Gent (BE)
2005
• Fiesta!, Annie Gentils Gallery , Antwerp (BE)
• Triënnale Hasselt - Z33, Hasselt (BE)
• Visionair Belgie (curated by Harald Szeemann), BOZAR, Brussel (BE)
2004
• Dear ICC - Aspects of Contemporay Art in Belgium 1970 - 1985, M HKA, Antwerp(BE), (curated by Johan Pas)
2003
• Floating Time 2003 - Lethe, Rivier der vergetelheid, 'S Hertogenbosch (NL)
• Sugar & Spice, Annie Gentils Gallery (BE)
• Vernieuwde collectiepresentatie IV, M HKA, Antwerp (BE)
2001
• .Y.E.L.L.O.W. Actuele Kunst en Psychiatrie, SMAK, Gent (BE)
• Tumbleweed, Galeria Klerkx, Milaan/', NICC, Antwerpen / Lokaal 01, Breda (NL)
• TIERRA DE NADIE, Hospital Real, Granada, 15 giugno – 15 luglio 1992, a cura di José Lebrero Stals; cat. Manigua s.l., Granada 1992.
1999
• De Boot van Dionysos, Bos van Ypeij, Tytsjerk (NL)
1992
• “ Tierra de nadie": exposición 15 de junio - 15 de julio 1992, Hospital Real, Granada - curated by José Lebrero Stals
1990
• Artisti (della Flandra) - Kunstenaars (uit Vlaanderen) - SMAK, Gent (BE)
• Ponton Temse – curated by Jan Hoet, Gent (BE)
• Beeldenstorm, Cultureel Centrum De Beyerd, Breda (NL)
• Köln Show, Galerie Monika Sprüth, Köln
• Artisti (dela Fiandria), Palazzo Sagredo, Venice
• Standard Graphik, Köln
• Kunstproject, Raadzaal, Lommel (BE)
• Stad aan de Stroom, Antwerp, (BE)
1989
• A Belgian Exhibition, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York
• Accrochage, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp (BE)
• Beyond the Everyday Object, Muhka, Muhka, Antwerp
• Galerie Tanya Rumpff, Haarlem, NL.
1988
• 34th Biennial, Venice, Aperto
• Galerie des Beaux- Arts, Brussels
• Galerie Adrien Maeght, Paris – Montrouge
• Facsimilé, De Zaak, Groningen (NL)
• Rombouts & Droste , Beelden Buiten 88 , Tielt( BE)
1987
• Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussel
• Deconstruction, Hallen van Schaarbeek, Brussel (BE)
• Group Show, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerpen (BE)
• Museum voor Hedendagse Kunst, Gent
• Language and Metalanguage, De Lege Ruimte, Bruges (BE)
1986
• Afscheidstentoonstelling Karel Geirlandt – In de Maalstroom , Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussel
• Initiatief 86, SMAK, Gent (BE) (selectie Kasper König – Guy Rombouts – Chantal Akerman – Raoul De Keyser – Jef Geys)
• Initiatief d’Amis, Vooruit, Gent (BE)
• Guy Rombouts John Körmeling, Luc Deleu, Guillaume Bijl - Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp (BE)
• Portrait de scène île aux phoques, Casa Frollo, Venice
• Controllo es destino dei modelli della giovane arte internazionale – Canino, Italy
1985
• Combine ' (Bruce Elliot, Guy Rombous, Vanche, Annemie Van Kerchoven, CC Berchem (BE)
• 4 Belges à Paris: Rombouts - Daems - Francois - Legrand, Bateau Lavoir , Paris
• Investigation, Espace 251 Nord, Liège (BE)
1984
• Apollohuis , Eindhoven (NL)
1983
• Diagonale, Montevideo, Antwerp (BE) (UNI), curator Annie Gentils
• Marchandises, 5 millions de tonnes de marchandises livrées chaque année in Montevideo, Montevideo, Antwerp (BE) , curator Annie Gentils

1980
• 26 Belgische kunstenaars, ICC, Antwerpen (BE)
1979
• Inzicht/Overzicht - Actuele Kunst in België, Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent (BE) ( Geen kat die zich interesseert)
1978
• Jef Somerlinck, Philippe Van Snick, Jan Vercruysse, Guy Rombouts, ADD Galerie, Antwerpen (BE)

WORKS IN PUBLIC SPACE
• 1995 - SD Worx Antwerp
• 1997 - Koning Albert II-laan, Brussels
• 1998 - Metrostation Tomberg, Brussels
• 2001 - School 4, Leuven (BE)
• 2001 - 9 Bridges, Java Eilanden, Amsterdam
• 2004 - ING BANK, Antwerp
• 2006 - Letter Garden, Burcht (BE)

International public collections
SMAK – Ghent
M HKA – Antwerp
Muzee – Ostend
Macs – Grand Hornu
Flemish Community
Argos Centre for Art and Media
Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium
FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon, Montpelier France
FRAC Collection Aquitaine
CAPC Musée d’art Contemporaine Bordaux
FRAC Picardie
FRAC Bretagne
Frac Nord pad de Callais
Collection Antwerp university

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