Opportunities for Lost Chances

Opportunities for Lost Chances

18.11.2023 – 20.01.2024

JAN TROMP
MAËLLE LUCAS-LE GARREC
LIISA PÖYSTI

Ballroom Invites is pleased to present "Opportunities for Lost Chances," a group exhibition featuring the fresh perspectives of recently graduated artists from La Cambre Brussels and The Royal Academy in Antwerp. Explore the captivating works of Jan Tromp, Maëlle Lucas-Le Garrec, and Liisa Pöysti.

Jan Tromp (b. 1995, NL): Jan's artistic journey, rooted in fine arts at HKU in Utrecht, culminated with a master's in painting from the Royal Academy in Antwerp in 2023. His work delves into the unintentional traces people leave in their daily lives. Through photography, collages, cut-out paintings, and music, Jan seeks to encapsulate the remarkable aspects of his personal surroundings. Join us in discovering the nuanced layers of Jan Tromp's observations

Maëlle Lucas-Le Garrec (b. 1997, FR): A laureate of the Prix des Amis de la Cambre, Maëlle graduated in 2023 from La Cambre, where she studied drawing. Her artistic practice effortlessly traverses drawing, engraving, and sculpture, utilizing materials such as wood, stone, and found objects. Maëlle's work invites you to witness the harmonious dialogue between various mediums and explore the intricacies of her artistic expression.

Liisa Pöysti (b.2000, FI): is a Finnish painter, who received a master’s degree in painting from the Royal Academy in Antwerp in 2023. The sketchbook acts as a starting point for their work, where they create imaginary drawings and paintings guided by the subconscious

Works

L’été Indien

L'été Indien

07.09.23 - 14.10.23

Simon Demeuter
Guillaume Linard-Osorio
Thomas Trum
Pascal Vilcollet

The mysterious light of twilight / the ascending sun spreads out in paintings by Pascal Vilcollet (born 1979, lives and works in Paris), whose work, despite it's non-figurative nature, is typical for the carefully curated elements in his paintings whereas create a sense of hierarchy and proximity that resonates with viewers, drawing them into the vivid and textured world he creates on canvas. Vilcollet's typical element is the interplay of perspectives, memories, symbols and colours, resulting in a unique blend of expressionism and abstraction on large canvases. The studio holds an immense significance in his artistic process. Vilcollet maps out his workspace by applying a pictorial language to a blank surface. He circulates around the canvas and intervenes by creating different layers to create a perspective. In a second phase, this notion of perspective is broadened to call upon his memories and references.

The flip, where things take on a new form, its newly acquired physicality, can be felt in Guillaume Linard-Osorio’s work (b. 1978, lives and works in Paris and Toulouse) where construction materials linked to his background as an architect, often serve as the foundation of his work. Despite their eventual disappearance in the finality of construction, Linard-Osorio focuses on the transformation and visibility of these materials; from their silent vocabulary, he reassembles and questions meaning. The artist seeks points of rupture, the intrinsic critical threshold of materials, to reconsider cultural and social connections and disconnections; often questioning our relationship with the world and social interactions through material experiments.

The metamorphosis is completed in the work of Simon Demeuter (b. 1991, lives and works in Paris), whose painting practice is driven by a search for bold simplification of form, inducing his works with pictorial freshness and a sense of immediacy. Colour is the artist’s primordial tool to evoke an emotion, an impression, a sensation, a mood or a physical or mental state. Within his imagery, one can discern glimpses of an inner landscape and subtle references to diverse art forms like Folk Art, Impressionism, cinema, and music. Remarkably, a seemingly trivial object, chosen with arbitrary intent, can serve as the catalyst for an entirely new series of paintings, as is evidenced in the artworks showcased in the exhibition. From the humble beginnings of a Roman vase, a captivating series unfolds before the viewer's eyes. Through this relentless exploration, Demeuter seeks to uncover the elusive trace of emotion in its purest and most unadorned form. His art speaks of a profound endeavor to distill the essence of feeling, capturing it with a simple and stripped-down approach.

The cycle is symbolically closed by Thomas Trum’s oeuvre (b. 1989, lives and works in the Netherlands), whereby the method of his work revolves around material research of paint and techniques with the goal to reach an intersection of art and design; using the studio as a place for experiment, he looks into unconventional ways to paint on paper. Trum his artistic endeavors are characterized by a captivating array of colors and an intriguing play of minimalism. The artist employs various nontraditional tools to craft his masterpieces, such as a road-marking machine and a massive felt tool that spans several feet in length. These unorthodox choices contribute to the creation of his vibrant paintings, whether on canvas, paper, or walls, often resulting in breathtaking large-scale works. His process is marked by laborious experimentation, resulting in euphoric expressions of color, depth, and pattern.

Works

Like an Addiction

Like an Addiction

13.05 - 24.06.23

Lucie Lanzini

Lucie Lanzini’s Lanzini’s body of work shows a hidden reality behind the appearance of things. Her work opens a reflection on the domestic space and its architectural components, on what holds and what sticks. Her work consists of a set of architectural and ornamental elements whose realization and rea- lism intri- gues as much as their potential to become ruined.Through the molding technique, Lucie Lanzini evokes the relation to memories and tries to capture their absence to memorialize them. Passionate about the play of material, the artist combines different techniques of sculpture to create the discrepan- cies and oppositions that punctuate her work.

Works

Destrucformation

Destrucformation

13.05.23

Ileana Moro (°1992) Costa Rica

As a painter, I am drawn to exploring the depths of human emotion through the use of dark tones and layered surfaces. I am fascinated with the mysteries of outer space and the cosmic dance of astrology, and how they connect to our spiritual transformation. These invisible forces are often the inspiration for my work, which balances a sense of melancholy with the hopeful promise of romanticism.
My paintings are surreal, yet minimalist, each brushstroke revealing a soulful connection between the outer and inner worlds.
I work primarily in oil painting, an inherently emotional medium that allows me to express a wide range of feelings through light and shadow. The ovals forms are inherently spiritual in their meaning, playing a symbolic role in representing the birth of an unseen identity. It is a potent metaphor with many layers shed and new surfaces uncovered in the process, symbolizing the eternal cycle of creation and interconnectedness of all things.
Ultimately, with each piece, I hope to create a sense of connection between the viewer and the divine, reminding us all of our place in the infinite and unknowable universe.

Works

Tsubo Niwa

Tsubo Niwa

25.03 - 06.05.23

Romy Streep

Tsubo Niwa gives a clear insight into the definition of a garden and its potential.
On the one hand you’ve got niwa, meaning “garden”. On the other, tsubo. One meaning of tsubo is an area equal to two tatami mats or about 3.3 square meters. Most Tsubo gardens are small, some only a few square meters, but the implication of this definition is that the tsubo garden is very small. So one way to think about the tsubo garden is in terms of its size. A second meaning of tsubo brings a new dimension to the garden. In this case tsubo means a vessel, usually ceramic, such as a large water jug.
Now we see the tsubo garden not just as a tiny garden, but a three-dimensional space, a volume that is held between the walls of surrounding rooms. So in this case, the Tsubo garden is contained inside a building, like a jewel in a box. There is a third way to write Tsubo that brings the garden out of a purely physical definition and in the realm of the spiritual. There is a belief, in most countries influenced by Chinese culture, in Ki or “life energy”. A force that flows through the body. And along its lines of flow there are special points. In Japanese these points are called, tsubo. Here in I found the true definition of “my garden”. A place to take a moment, a breath.
Hidden between the noisy streets of Brusselles lays my garden. Made from wool and ceramic.

Works

Interstice

Interstice

25.03 - 06.05.23

Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen

What is in-between?

Interstice is a reflection on what is within. A room in a room, inside the wall is a space; the space inside is the place for reflections, space for thoughts.
Transparent and elusive, this installation has the potential to render absence noticeable, to render emptiness tangible.

In the Japanese language Ma is an “aesthetic principle meaning “emptiness” or “absence.” It is the space between objects, the silence between sounds, or the stillness between movements. The term describes both time and space, and is much more than a “lack” of something. The emptiness is, in fact, a palpable entity¹”.


¹ Lanki, Colleen. “間: an aesthetic of space-time”, ricepaper magazine, 7 February 2013, https://ricepapermagazine.ca/2013/02/間-an-aesthetic-of-space-time/

Works

Full of whispers

Full of whispers

04.02 - 18.03.23

I spend many parts of my childhood in ruins, prehistoric caves, dying cathedrals, archaeological sites and gravel pits. In the wake of destruction, I learned how time sculpts every stone carefully and precisely. A Greek column would shape shift to become an autonomous sculpture. A demonstration of Nature always having the upper hand. A ruin embodies paradoxes; a ruin is a remnant ‘off’ and a portal ‘in’. It’s a constant reminder of the passing of time. In melancholic fashion we reminisce about time before mass media.

Works

Ballroom Blitz

Ballroom Blitz

04.02 - 18.03.23

Painting has always been the starting point of Hilde Overbergh’s artistic practice. Not the kind of painting where the action takes place within the surface of a defined canvas, but a kind of painting that challenges and shifts the rules and notions of genres and media. Her artistic method is not focussed on claiming a certain signature style, it rather zooms in on the exploration of the transformative possibilities of materials, colors, and shapes. Her work comprises aspects of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, assemblage, and installation. And above anything else, the artist focuses on the process.
Although Overbergh approaches her work conceptually, what stands out is a great sense of intuition and tactility. Through leaving space for what’s unintentional or unforeseen during the creative process, her art never becomes sterile. The artist uses material to question herself. She reclaims insignificant, everyday objects – materials without obvious art-historical associations, or seemingly futile remnants of the past – and unravels and reshapes them into evocative carriers of meaning. She extracts beauty and poetry from humble materials such as foam, plastic waste, pieces of textile, glass shards … Her diverse oeuvre is also capable of holding on to elements of when and where the work was made. Environment and context often have a tangible influence on her artistic output through her search for a connection with social and urban dynamics.
By repeating and reworking fragments and works from previous presentations, the artist allows for not only the shape, but also the meaning of her work to stray and change. The meaning of her works accumulates over time, and changes according to their position in space or relation to context. Hilde Overbergh creates dynamic connections and associations between works of art and different presentations, which makes viewers sensitive to perception and experience. Her work exists fully in the present moment, and reflects the commotion and fragility of the world around us.

Works

Note to self

Note to self

23.04 - 04.06.22​

In the very free and fluid symbiosis between Todorova's drawings and Naveau's sculptures, both artists find an interesting look at their own work; a new layer of perception and meaning; a mental note. The joint exhibition Note to Self highlights points of contact between the artists (such as the sculptural potential of drawing and the sketchiness of clay) and allows the works, in their total freedom, to complement each other. This text can merely be an attempt to put into words why both oeuvres function so well together aesthetically. Their connection does not arise on an academic or rational level, but in an intuitive, emotional togetherness. Their mutual conversation is reflected in the unique, demarcated space of the gallery and reveals reverberating echoes. In this aesthetic echo, new openings arise to the imagination of the viewer and possibly also of the artists themselves.

Works