New artist representation and new exhibition - - - Open October 16 — December 25, 2021 in Hong Kong - - - Axel Vervoordt Gallery is pleased to announce representation of New York and Shanghai-based artist Shen Chen (b. 1955, Shanghai). The artist’s inaugural exhibition will be at the Hong Kong space, featuring twelve paintings created between 2009 and 2021. Shen will be the first Chinese artist in the gallery’s roster and his first European solo exhibition with the gallery is planned for 2022 at Kanaal. Throughout his career, Shen emphasises the artistic process and materials in his practice. In recent years, he mainly applies the Western medium of acrylic paint in a way that is reabsorbed through his training and knowledge of the qualities of ink. Painting with the canvas on the floor, he adopts a physical and introspective gesture of layering brushstrokes onto the canvas. Incorporating the flow of his qi (breath movement and energy), Shen paints each brushstroke vertically and by doing so, forms a horizontal marking of where the brushes end and begin again. What emerges from the canvas is a transformative, ever-changing, and endless space. With subtle tonal gradation and nuances, Shen’s works bear stylistic influences of paintings from the Color Field movement of the 1940s and 50s in New York. Yet, his practice is rooted in an innate philosophical mode of thought from his training in traditional Chinese ink painting. In a disciplined act of repetition, Shen adds depth to the canvas with layers of paint, completing each work only when he feels his qi has left and when he has reached emptiness into the void. His works are temporal, where reciprocating layers of dialogue emerge in each brushstroke between opacity and translucence. - - - Artist portrait: © Klaus Reinelt - - - #shenchen #chinesecontemporaryart #axelvervoordtgalleryhk #axelvervoordtgallery

In the castle’s blue-and-white dining room, there is a collection of 17th century porcelain known as the Hatcher collection. Recovered in the early 1980s by British explorer, Captain Michael Hatcher, in the South China Sea, the pieces developed a matte texture from being submerged for hundreds of years in saltwater. But what remains in the matte surface are the free and expressive gestures of the artist who hand-painted each piece. Even in the smallest details the artisan’s talent is present. This authenticity changes one’s perception about what porcelain can be. With Axel and May’s daily use, they continue to live on. - - - Photo: courtesy of @tefaf - - - #hatchercollection #mingporcelain #axelvervoordt

Now at view at Kanaal: “It’s all based on process. I believe that if the process is something solid, then the outcome will be too. My work is a lot about the accident. The non-control. The passing of time. How all these elements make things totally unique and unrepeatable. Even if I want to do one work again it will always come out completely different from what I expect. The weather. The pigments. The different sawdust that I use. Always bring a totally different outcome. That’s what makes it so organic and so natural. I’m very interested in trying to make the spectator to have this feeling of connection to nature with these works.” #axelvervoordtgallery #axelvervoordtkanaal #boscosodi

• A sculpture by Lucia Bru from 2017, (pleins), is included in the exhibition Silence and Space, now on view at Kanaal.

In one of the company’s studio spaces, where we bring together art, furniture, and objects that span geographies and periods, a chair by José Zanine Caldas is placed alongside an Artempo cupboard and an unfolded antique boro jacket—a Japanese indigo textile. - - - #artempo #axelvervoordt #axelvervoordtkanaal #josezaninecaldas - - - Photo: @lazizhamani for Portraits of Interiors (Flammarion 2019)

I always liked to mix antique art and contemporary art, discovering what was timeless, what was universal. I think this dialogue between old and new has been a very important theme in my life.

Open Saturday at Kanaal: Axel Vervoordt Gallery is pleased to present “Into the Deepest” by Bosco Sodi, an exhibition featuring a series of dense and deeply black paintings, alongside golden stone sculptures. Sodi describes black as being “not just one colour of so many, nor is it an element or material of so many. Black bathes everything in an absence, reveals an opacity, and dissolves all shades of shadow and light". This pure darkness stands in contrast to the light emitting from the golden sculptures as if, even in the darkest places, there’s illumination to be found. - - - September 18–November 06, 2021 at Kanaal’s Patio Gallery - - - #boscosodi #axelvervoordtgallery #axelvervoordtkanaal #contemporaryart #contemporarypainting #contemporarysculpture #blackerthanblack

Now Open: Axel Vervoordt Gallery is pleased to participate in @artonpaperbrussels — the international fair for contemporary drawing and works on paper at @bozarbrussels   Part of @brusselsdrawingweek — Art on Paper 2021 is in its 6th edition and has become one of Europe’s leading drawing fairs. Special preview day today, September 14, and the fair continues September 15-19 from 10:00-19:00 daily.   Our selection of artists includes Raimund Girke, Masaaki Yamada, Sadaharu Horio, Michel Mouffe, Lucia Bru, Ryuji Tanaka, Piero Manzoni, Acharya Vyakul, Oskar Holweck, Ida Barbarigo, and Masatoshi Masanobu.

We’re pleased to present an “Investigation of Materiality”, a group exhibition at Kanaal’s Terrace Gallery featuring sculptures by the Belgian artist Peter Buggenhout in juxtaposition with two equivalently radical Gutai artworks by Sadamasa Motonaga and Tsuyoshi Maekawa. #gutai #tsuyoshimaekawa #sadamasamotonaga ##peterbuggenhout

For the 2021 edition of TEFAF Online, Axel Vervoordt is pleased to present an extraordinary architectural model of a classical temple. This year’s fair features the theme “The Art of Collecting” and this intricate masterpiece is the perfect selection. Originally crafted in the late 18th to early 19th century as a Grand Tour object, it was designed and conceived precisely for the purpose of being collected by the culturally inclined. Register now for @tefaf online via the link in bio. 700 exceptional works will be available for this year’s edition. Public view: September 9—13, 2021. tefaf #tefaf2021

Join us at Kanaal today (Sept 4) or next Saturday (Sept 11) for the last two days of the exhibition, Nebel, by @michelmouffe. Our exhibition spaces in Wijnegem are open every Saturday from 11 a.m.— 6 p.m.

The Wabi rain pavilion at the castle of ‘a-Gravenwezel photographed by @mpaulfoto - - - “The spirit of Wabi— adopted from the ancient Japanese aesthetic wabi-sabi—embraces the spirit of thinking globally and acting locally. It’s about embracing the essence of materials and valuing everyday human interaction. Once we found a name, we wanted to define and document the qualities we felt were the most Wabi—simplicity, humility, purity, nobility without sophistication, and the beauty of imperfection and incompleteness. We decided to create the book Wabi Inspirations to help share this idea with a wider audience. We added photographer Laziz Hamani and writer Michael Paul to the team. The book’s success was surprising. It taught me that Wabi speaks to people of many socioeconomic backgrounds because it allows people to find an expression in their daily lives, no matter how or where they live. My way of Wabi is a return to the lessons I learned earlier in my life, which took me decades to express. Wabi is to accept that time is both an observer and creator. Wabi is a return to nature.” Axel Vervoordt in the book, Stories and Reflections - - - #axelvervoordt #tatsuromiki #wabisabi #wabipavilion #castleofsgravenwezel #axelvervoordtdesign