Merel Van de Casteele 1995

Lives in Kortrijk. Works in Kortrijk.

Guest at:

TaLe Art Gallery

guest

Merel Van de Casteele – Originally a painter, now an artist in many forms.
Both graphic and plastic arts are close to her heart, and she manages to combine both worlds seemingly effortlessly in a hybrid practice. She moves between night and day, between darkness and light, between core and surface.
Her work is sometimes open and legible, sometimes closed and elusive, but always restless. If you look closely, and even more so if you listen carefully, you can feel the tension beneath the surface. It is the so-called contradictions that feed the space in between. And it is precisely that space that Merel seeks out and needs to nourish herself.
Outside the studio, she seeks out public spaces, where she conjures and shares her objects through her characteristic performative gestures.
Van de Casteele's young oeuvre is mature and layered, rooted in a fascination with the ethnographic and the academic. A combination in which forgotten histories are transformed into urgent testimonies.

Text: Wim Lambrecht – Pig Earth, 2025

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Artworks by Merel Van de Casteele

Merel Van de Casteele, Yellow II

Merel Van de Casteele, Tekening voor Ovidius: Toren en Lam

Tekening voor Ovidius: Toren en Lam

Merel Van de Casteele, Tekening voor Ovidius: Bloemkool

Tekening voor Ovidius: Bloemkool

Merel Van de Casteele, Turquois

Merel Van de Casteele, Blauw III

Merel Van de Casteele, Yellow III

Merel Van de Casteele, Zwart II

Merel Van de Casteele, Pink

Articles on Merel Van de Casteele

The surface holds no secrets: painting as living skin

The surface holds no secrets: painting as living skin

Some exhibitions show art. Others show the making of art. The Surface Holds No Secrets, curated by Wim Lambrecht at TaLe Art Gallery, belongs to the latter. Here, nothing is hidden behind the sheen of paint or illusion of image. The paintings speak through their ‘skin’, revealing their scars and history. In his introductory text, Lambrecht writes that the surface hides nothing, that the painting carries its own memory. This insight forms the core of the exhibition: painting as the result of what was once gesture.

Yves Joris

The studio of... Merel Van de Casteele

The studio of... Merel Van de Casteele

The home of Merel Van de Casteele functions both as workshop and a living space. From the attic to the conservatory, the Belgian artist develops sculptures and drawings. Her drawings often begin as words on paper, a practice she calls ‘drawn writing’, moving from left to right as if they tell a story. In her newest drawings, the works carry the names of colors. Once a form emerges, Van de Casteele searches for the color that suits it best, resulting in works that are both graphic and painterly.

Martine Bontjes

Martine Bontjes

Shows

THE SURFACE HOLDS NO SECRETS, Daniel Mattar, Lode Laperre, Marc Van Cauwenbergh, Merel Van de Casteele, Svelte Thys,

THE SURFACE HOLDS NO SECRETS

Daniel Mattar, Lode Laperre, Marc Van Cauwenbergh, Merel Van de Casteele, Svelte Thys

21 sep - 19 oct 2025, Vlierzele, Belgium

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