16 may 2023, Yves Joris
Amber Geuns: on the lightening of fabric and lampshades
Sometimes things happen quickly. Amber Geuns earned her Master's degree in Painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 2022 and only a year later, is set to open her first solo exhibition Enlightenment at Art Gallery De Wael 15. Reason enough to head to the southside of Antwerp to let the artist and gallery owner ‘enlighten’ me about their fledgling collaboration.
At first glance, Amber's work can be confusing. Most of her paintings feature soft tones, with pink often dominating, and her characters wear armour made from old lampshades and cushions. The series was entitled Lampshade Knights. Where do you even start with such contradictions of style and naming?
When asked what inspires her, Amber’s answer is spontaneous and detailed: “I find inspiration everywhere. I find myself walking around very consciously with the intention of obtaining as many impressions as possible. Whiles studying, I spent more than four years in lively Antwerp, enjoying student life, but my Limburg roots took me back to the tranquillity of the countryside, where I can enjoy fields full of flowers and pastureland with cows. The tranquillity of the countryside provides fewer stimuli, while at the same time offering me the opportunity to experiment more with the environment.”
Amber Geuns, Enlightenment - 2, 2023, Art Gallery De Wael 15
The imaginative power of fabrics
Amber still lives with her parents, and her studio, located on the second floor of a renovated farm house, is perfect for making the most of her multidisciplinary talents. “Fabrics are another important part of my artistic repertoire. They have their own personality. An image first develops in my head, something I can best describe as a blurry Polaroid. I imagine figures in certain poses and with these poses in mind, start working on mannequins, which I drape with fabrics to finetune the image in order to finally arrive at a painting. Admittedly, I do make changes to the image I originally had in mind (laughs).”
The artist inherited her love of fabrics from her mother, a clothing designer. “Fabric texture in particular really appeals to me, but also how it responds to light, how a certain pleat that you hadn't seen before suddenly gets an extra accent. In addition to fabrics, light also plays a very important role in my work. The countless lampshades I use in my work are, of course, a giveaway. But my ‘knights’ also get lamps in their fighting hands instead of swords. This lets me bring light into my paintings in places the viewer might not expect.”
Amber Geuns, Scenography 4, 2023, Art Gallery De Wael 15
During the interview, Amber says she's more of a morning person who (usually) sticks to a strict routine. “Contrary to the romantic image many people have of artists, I am not really a night person. I find nothing more enjoyable than going to my studio after an early breakfast and immersing myself in the visual narrative of the day.”
From Caravaggio to Yaskavage
During the tour of the exhibition, she takes me into her artistic world. Works of barely ten centimetres engage in dialogue with canvases that easily take up half a wall. My cerebral art database goes overboard at times. Those small works, aren’t that a playful reference to Robert Devriendt? The frivolous pink, a Rococo Fragonard or a postmodern Flora Yuknovich? A surrealistic Magritte who turns knight's swords into lamps? Caravaggio's chiaroscuro? Will she name the same names as sources of inspiration?
“Of course, as an artist, I am influenced by the images and works of art that surround me, but I try to avoid that in my work. That is why my work often remains anonymous. I rarely paint heads and when I do, I make sure not to outline them clearly. A few brushstrokes are enough to simulate the ‘existence of a head’. I want my works to be timeless and geographically indeterminate, from no specific time yet from all times. But when I think about names that influence me, I think first and foremost of painters from the Baroque period, such as Caravaggio. The Surrealists also provide inspiration for my work. Personally, I am also a huge fan of the work of Russian American artist Lisa Yaskavage. How she combines colour, the atmospheres she creates and her brushstrokes fascinate me every time.”
Amber Geuns, Lampshade knights, pleated radiance, 2023, Art Gallery De Wael 15
A distinctive painting shows a work that is no longer stretched onto a frame, but instead the canvas has been pulled together into a bundle that hides the original work. Laughing, I ask Amber if she was not satisfied with the content of the canvas and has resolved this in an original way. “No, the intention is actually to hang the canvas in this way. Like I said before, I like pleats and how they reflect light. This work is a way to add an extra dimension.”
Meanwhile, gallerist Rik Rosseels has joined us and I take the opportunity to ask him about his newest discovery. His answer is as logical as it is sincere. His father Jos, with whom he founded the gallery six years ago, became acquainted with Amber's work during an exhibition of the graduation projects by Antwerp Academy students. He was impressed by the character of her work. Later on, Rik also became acquainted with the young artist and he describes this meeting as a ‘gut feeling in which everything seemed right’. The result is the exhibition Enlightenment, the first and certainly not the last solo exhibition featuring this young multi-talent.
