Eva Steynen Gallery presents, 'Tamed Animals', Nel Bonte's first solo exhibition at the gallery.
In her sculptures, Nel Bonte (°1986) lets personal memories and everyday objects interact in a play of image, colour and scale. The sculptures sometimes strongly resemble scale models or prototypes that interact with the public. Small, trivial objects are magnified. Often they are fragments or parts of objects from the world of children that she brings together to form a new whole.
The works are both organic in form and minimal in line. With an eye for aesthetic forms of building constructions, Bonte translates everyday objects into almost architectural sculptures. This distilled vision creates a tension arc with the naive, organic forms. Her art pushes the boundaries of traditional ceramic figurations and transforms into hybrid sculptures that explore themes of tension, vulnerability and sensitivity.
By bringing together works with different textures and vocabulary, Bonte creates new connections that form a playful stylized world. In her creative process, she looks beyond the aesthetics of the material used. In doing so, she uses both the specific properties and the limitations of the different materials.
With this recent series of sculptures for 'Tamed Animals' Bonte refers to the 'homo ludens'. Iconic forms of children's toys that connect with our collective memory. In the figuration of the game Bonte searches for the beauty and value of human vulnerability and finitude. This combination of playful and deeper themes makes Bonte's work unique. With a deceptive playfulness and naivety the archetype, the myth and the symbolic value of an image are explored.
NEL BONTE (°1986, Roeselare) lives and works in Antwerp and studied visual arts at the KASK, Ghent and obtained a master's degree in visual arts (KASK, Antwerp) and has been exhibiting since 2010. Recent exhibitions are, among others, Art Antwerp; W.A.R.P. led by Stef Van Bellingen (Sint-Niklaas, B), ‘Kamers van Zé’, Antwerp; ‘Oreilles géometrique’, Berlare; ‘The Biennial of Ideas’, Menen; CAPS, Brussels and Ostend, Art on Paper, Brussels (B), ‘Beestig’, in crates by Jan Moeyaert, Damme; ‘Alle rechtlijnen zijn bozen’, CC De Ververij, curated by Jan Leconte, Ronse (B); ‘Kresija Gallery’ Ljubljana (SI), Zebrastraat, Ghent, ‘Compost', curated by Els Wuyts, Herzele.