BRUTHAUSGALLERY

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'Dingen' Robin Vermeersch (BE)

solo exhibition

 

DFFRNCE - Robin Vermeersch  - 2017

CAMOUFLAGED PEARLS#2 .           - 2019

 

 

About the exhibition: DINGEN (THINGS)

In the DINGEN (THINGS) exhibition Robin Vermeersch (B °1977) confronts drawings with sculptural work for the very first time.

The title of this exhibition project refers to objects, 'things' that can stand alone and tell their own story. In the Bruthaus Gallery's main space his sculptures are also displayed as things on the floor. They are present and refer to something without it being real.

Robin's floor sculptures consist of geometric shapes, which wink at abstract, corporate modernism.  His drawings are characterised by one and the same origin.

The artist envelops these formal mathematical shapes with organic tissue, which is draped over them and which eventually overgrows the rational, geometric structures and patterns. It wrestles with the clean-cut shape and takes root on and in the structure, creating a new shape. That which is seemingly real becomes palpable, tangible and human.

The rational basis of these works is countered by the intuitive skin. The ceramic material plays a major role in this respect; it cannot be controlled but is governed by its own rules and laws.

In addition to this duality light plays a third crucial role in Robin Vermeersch's work: when does a form or a structure in a drawing appear and disappear, what do we see and what is concealed between a sculpture’s folds?

The pencil drawings gradually emerge and the light is filtered out in a subtle manner. These shapes also appear to refer to, but are not, other, existing organisms. They are derived from things in the world that we seemingly know but that still stand alone in their own right.

In the display cabinet the artist constructs a landscape from different sculptures that refer to each other, which are placed or hung against an organic painted background. They look like elements in a theatrical decor, each with its own function and identity.

At the same time they play a game with each other and the background, as in one vast world to which they belong.

It is literally like looking at another world, displayed behind glass.

One large, inseparable family.

R.V. & BG.

 

 

 

 

 

Biographical sketch

The youngest of a family of artists, Robin Vermeersch studied painting at Sint-Lucas University College (LUCA School of Arts) in Ghent from 1995 through 1999 although since his studies, painting seems to be increasingly banished to the background in favour of drawing and sculpture. Robin Vermeersch is gradually and idiosyncratically working on his very own distinctive artistic path, independent of artistic traditions and current trends. In 1999, his work was exhibited during Coming People in the S.M.A.K in Ghent as well as at an exhibition of work by young artists in Amsterdam.

In the years that followed he regularly participated in group exhibitions for young, contemporary artists with, for the time being, highlights such as We Are Family in 2005 in CC Strombeek, an art fair in Turin (2007) and the Art Brussels fair (2008). Since 2001, Robin Vermeersch has also had solo exhibitions, usually held in smaller galleries spread across Flanders and Brussels. In the autumn of 2008, he was artist-in-residence at Be-Part, the Waregem platform for contemporary art.

Dorothee Capelle

Artistic sketch

Robin Vermeersch's work appears media-diverse: sculpture, installation, painting, graphic work and mixed media. They converge in terms of content and one medium forms the continuation or starting point of another. In his oeuvre the artist generally starts with organic, natural elements that he reworks into new, often amorphous sculptures.

These sculptures refer to a 'different reality', small particles, fractions extracted from a greater whole. The sculptures, drawings and paintings work autonomously but often come together to create a grand total-installation.

In this installation Robin Vermeersch constructs a universe, using features such as tunnels, rooms, corridors, shafts, holes and caves, in which a new perspective lies behind each sculpture. As if you are only allowed to see a tiny part of what is contained in the 'other' world. The spectator's gaze is drawn inside like a secret voyeur.