Les collections

Manuela Klerkx

Non-Conformist Art

There are lots of ways to make complex things simple in conversation, but even more ways to make simple things complex. In day-to-day communication, this often leads to colossal and unnecessary misunderstandings – with the resulting consequences. This is unfortunate and sometimes painful or extremely frustrating, but can be remedied. In art, however, it can be fatal when complex observations and insights are made even more difficult – and thus more incomprehensible – and the final painting or image becomes incomprehensible or inaccessible as a result. Most artists are therefore not satisfied until they have succeeded in creating a work of art that does not reflect the complications that preceded it. After all, it is only when you are able to express complex ideas in a simple and clear visual language that your mission is a success: a work of standing or hanging art that catches the attention of the viewer. The following works of art show that it is very well possible to turn complex concepts or ideas into something visually understandable, moving or aesthetic, but that this requires a good dose of non-conformity.

Nahum Tevet

1 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 14 Oeuvres disponibles

3 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations

Israeli sculptor Nahum Tevet (1946) creates conceptual art that draws on Minimalist (and post-Minimalist) and Constructivist influences, as well as modern European architecture. His constructions are mounted directly on the floor or wall. For Tevet, the architectural planes and lines of an exhibition space act not only as load-bearing walls, but also as compositional elements that are seamlessly integrated into the visual logic of the sculptures themselves. The complexity of the sculptures and deliberate confusion of sightlines cause disorientation, hindering attempts to fathom the works. In his wall sculptures, he bends the rigid rules of American Minimalism by evoking the lyrical qualities of colour and lines and the frequent resemblance of his works to functional objects like tables and beds. In other words, in Nevet's sculpture, influences from the worlds of architecture and design, geometry, painting and Pop Art – with its love of industrial design – are never far away. With his independent mind and sculptures, however, Tevet offers a prime example of non-conformity in relation to art movements and disciplines such as painting, sculpture and architecture, which he combines to tell a story all his own.

(Represented by Kristof De Clercq gallery)

V&B (A Jacobs en E Schoenmaker)

0 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 31 Oeuvres disponibles

2 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations

One might argue that V&B (Alex Jacobs and Ellemieke Schoenmaker), a Dutch artistic duo founded in Los Angeles in 2007, invented non-conformity. They marvel at the world and switch effortlessly between such disciplines as geology and physics, Wabi-Sabi (a Japanese philosophy of life that sees beauty in the imperfection and simplicity of things and attaches great value to the transience of things), Kintsugi (a Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold or silver lacquer) and Suiseki (a Japanese art based on the characteristics of stone, such as stability, longevity and immortality), digital, psychedelic and animistic imagery, and so on. Their works are both abstract and figurative, occasionally artificial and chemical and sometimes natural. Through a combination of plaster, acrylic paint, oil and turpentine-based varnish, the smoothly polished surfaces of the sculptures – lacking any trace of brushstrokes – reveal psychedelic shapes of colours merging as in an oil stain. Thanks to their technique and the 'soap-like' colours, their tactile, amorphous monolithic sculptures refer more to the chemical world of production, commerce and temporality than to the pure world of nature and durability and hardness of a stone or monolith. In terms of colour and materials, visual language and concept, V&B conform to nothing and no one and embrace Western and Eastern ideas – only to subsequently reject them.

(Represented by HEEJSTECK#)

Faryda Moumouh

2 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 37 Oeuvres disponibles

4 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations

Faryda Moumouh (1978) certainly does not conform to reality with her camera. On the contrary, in her documentary, she takes a unique approach to giving back to the world the thousands of thoughts that run through her head, the 'chaos' and 'noise' she experiences in real life. “These need to be translated, resulting in images that may not be easy to understand, but I challenge the viewer to become engulfed by my work. If I were to present a clear picture to the viewer, I would be lying.”* As a second-generation immigrant of Moroccan descent born in Belgium, she is labelled a foreigner and after 9/11, the entire community was only referred to as 'Muslims'. But what if you feel different, if you are an atheist and do not conform to the customs of the religious group to which you belong, especially in the eyes of the outside world? It is only in her images that can she fully express her personal thoughts and feelings in different layers. “I am much more than an ethnic identity.” Instead of the perfect picture as the final product, the photo she has taken forms the starting point of a lengthy process that uses such programmes as Photoshop and a scanner to immortalise her 'unwritten narrative' – according to its own rules and laws.

*PF Magazine, Edo Dijksterhuis, November 2021

(Represented by Shoobil)

Denmark

1 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 17 Oeuvres disponibles

8 Spectacles ᛫ 4 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations

Art historian, archaeologist and artist Denmark (1950, pseudonym and amalgamation of Marc Robbroeckx, who was addressed as 'den Marc' in his birthplace Antwerp) is a non-conformist when it comes to his use of newspapers, magazines and books. After graduating in 1972, he soon realised that the many books he collected during his studies did not provide him with the peace and knowledge he expected. In protest and as a criticism of the media landscape and endless waste of paper, he decided to reduce the amount of text by cutting, tearing, folding or pulverising printed paper until there was (virtually) no letter left. With this deconstruction, the original meaning of the text is lost, which he replaces through a ritual process of reconstruction – gluing, pressing and binding – with a new meaning, namely that of the work of art itself as an accusation against the overvaluation of the word, mass production and waste. Denmark's work is associated with art movements that made industrial production, mass consumption and social criticism an integral part of art from the 1960s onwards (such as Pop Art, New Realism and Arte Povera). However, what sets him apart from these art movements is his self-criticism: “Because he is convinced that truth is relative, Denmark also calls for reflection through self-mockery. This self-mockery is once again not verbal, but takes concrete form: Denmark, who is against accumulation, archives himself. He has been archiving the archives for around 40 years, and even archives the archives of archives, which he refers to as ‘archives³’ (to the third power).”*

* https://www.muhka.be/nl/collections/artists/d/artist/105--denmark

(Represented by COPPEJANS GALLERY)

Les collections

Non-Conformist Art

Nahum Tevet

Faryda Moumouh

Denmark

Expositions actuelles