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06 february 2024, Flor Linckens

The layered and enigmatic women of Ethel Coppieters

Need for Speed, Valerius Gallery

Until 17 February 2024, Valerius Gallery in Luxembourg City presents a solo exhibition featuring new works by Ethel Coppieters. The Brussels-based artist is also known under the name Soaz, a pseudonym she adopts for her work on expansive murals in the urban landscape.

In an art world where women have long been relegated to static and passive muses with a predominantly decorative role, Coppieters presents powerful, empowered, complex, and contradictory women. These enigmatic figures seem to resist simplistic categorisation, as though they would find such reductionism limiting. Instead, they are captured amidst dynamic movement. The artist finds her inspiration in the real women in her life, viewed through a female gaze. In her work, Coppieters explores concepts like sisterhood, joy, the complexity of female experiences, and the presence of women in male-dominated spaces.

Ethel Coppieters, L'arrivée, 2023, Valerius Gallery

The often expansive and dreamlike works of Coppieters are marked by a powerful and instantly recognisable visual language that plays with bodily proportions and deconstructs them effectively. In doing so, the artist challenges our conventional notions of beauty — questioning their origins and, importantly, who defines them. Her figures are set against brightly coloured backgrounds that sometimes appear abstract. At other times, they provide just enough detail for you to infer some context: an athletic track, nature, or perhaps a sunset. The figures themselves wear only a white pair of shorts and cowboy boots.

The vibrant paintings of Coppieters stand out through an exciting blend of textures and use of colour. The matte and uniform background ensures that the viewer's attention is immediately drawn to the figures in the foreground. These women are depicted with a richer, softer, and more varied palette and a subtle texture that accentuates the curves and muscle tone of their bodies. The figures seem almost three-dimensional, as if they could leap out of the canvas at any moment. At the same time, the contrast isolates them. It is also noteworthy that the figures in Coppieters' work bear a remarkable resemblance to each other. This may indicate a symbolic level of sisterhood, connection, and solidarity — and to a certain extent, a reflection of the artist herself. Alternatively, it could be the same woman, depicted in two different phases of movement, creating a stroboscopic effect where multiple poses of a movement are shown in succession.

Ethel Coppieters, Les élégantes, 2023, Valerius Gallery

Coppieters was born in 1996 and earned a Master's degree in Painting from the École de Recherche Graphique (ERG) in Brussels.

The exhibition 'Need for Speed' — a title that, ironically, carries a distinctly 'masculine' connotation — will be on display at Valerius Gallery in Luxembourg City until 17 February 2024.

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Flor Linckens

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06 february 2024, Flor Linckens

The layered and enigmatic women of Ethel Coppieters

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