“Time, space and colour. These are the elementary building blocks with which Pieter Vermeersch creates his universe. How these elements are used and how they interact, is different in every work. Yet all the works share one feature: it is the viewer who, through the physical act of looking, combines the different elements and, more importantly, combines with them.” (Guy Bovyn, ‘The Work of Art, Folded between Two Colours’)    

Intelligent reflections/contemplations on colour in space

Luk Lambrecht 

Vermeersch’s artistic production can be seen as the formulation of a question arising from amaze ment, of how an artist can relate to space in a meaningful way. Such a pictorial starting-point also implies that a good many interventions and installations are of an ephemeral nature. At most they remain visible during the period of the presentation. The oeuvre of Pieter Vermeersch is remarkable for its roots in the international avant-garde of the 1960s. Artists such as Robert Ryman, Daniel Buren, Sol LeWitt, Dan Graham and more recently Günther Förg and Heimo Zobernig are reference points for Vermeersch’s work.

Countless early works on glass and –more recently – his striking contribution to Free State in Ostend (2006) focus on colour in relation to naturally present or artificial lighting. Through the use of existing vitrine-spaces or the construction of self-made modules, the colour and application by hand of the liquid paint on the glass coincide with both the minimal and the gestural. The introduction of the painter’s hand in the context of grand installations forms a fine counterpoint in an artistic climate in which the traces of the action are no longer tolerated. Vermeersch also allowed his painterly installations to change colour while they were being exhibited. He photographed those changes and recorded them on video. In this way he associated his art with cinema and visualised the passing of time in relation to colour and space.

Time and the experience of time are other bases for the work of Pieter Vermeersch. The procedure of colour gradation, which has historical roots that reach deep into suprematism and tubism, is for Pieter Vermeersch a strategy for making time progressively visible and tangible in paint, as if it were the travelling shot of a camera. The paint gradually ‘fills up’ and draws the viewer into an abstract story with a clear starting- and end-point.

The autonomous work of Vermeersch – mostly on large canvas formats – is also a permanent study of paint and light. The passage of time is dimly visible through the painted light in the perfectly applied paint texture. The analysis of colour, in combination with the deftly applied paint in which the subtle passages barely betray the hand of the artist, is the determining characteristic of his works on canvas. They are also a nod to the historical avant-garde. With Vermeersch conceptual considerations are coupled with painting that places the sensual experience of the paint in an abstract and philosophical light. His painting is in that sense unique, because he makes a connection between the avant-garde and the current desire to transpose ideas into matter which speaks of an immediate, physical experience. The colour is everything and light remains the condition for rendering concrete the beauty that brings Pieter Vermeersch’s production to life. 

Biography of Pieter Vermeersch

°1973, Kortrijk 

Solo Exhibitions 

2007

–         ProjecteSD, Barcelona 

2006

–         Lieven Gevaert Centre for Photography and Visual Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven

–         Galerie CD, Tielt

–         STUK, Leuven 

2005

–         Koraalberg, Antwerpen

–         ProjecteSD, Barcelona 

2003

–         Koraalberg, Antwerpen

–         Kunst Nu, SMAK, Gent 

2002

–         Work in Progress III, Cultuurcentrum Strombeek, Strombeek-Bever 

2001

–     Work in Progress II, Koraalberg, Antwerpen 

2000

–         Work in Progress I, Off the Hook, Gent  

Group Exhibitions 

2007

–         [Mon Parnasse], Fransiscanenklooster, Gent

–         A Bit o’ White, CCNOA, Bruxelles/Brussel 

2006

–         Factura, De Markten, Bruxelles/Brussel

–         Freestate, Oud Militair Hospitaal, Oostende

–         ERGENS/SOMEWHERE. Pierre Bismuth, Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Pieter Vermeersch in dialoog met de MUHKA-collectie, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerpen

–         Palais des Arts 2006, Palais im Großen Garten, Dresden 

2005

–         Super! Triennial Hasselt, Hasselt

–         Expanded Painting. Prague Biennial 2, Praha

–         Les Ventinelles, Biennale d’Art contemporain. Édition 2005, ‘Flandre’, Anglet 

2004

–         Define Yourself – Definitions of Space, CBK Deventer, Deventer

–         Watou Poëziezomer 2004. Als een deur zonder huis die nog openstaat, Watou

–         Over de grens / Across the Border, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle; FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque 2003-2005

–         Metamorphosis II. Sergio De Beukelaer, Hans Op de Beeck, Maryam Najd, Pieter Vermeersch, Lieu d’Art Contemporain, Sigean; Cultuurcentrum De Werft, Geel; Museo Abelló, Barcelona; Galleria d’Arte moderna e contempornea, Rafaelle de Gradea; Musei Civici de San Gimignano, San Gimignano 

2003

–         Once Upon a Time… Een blik op kunst in België in de jaren ’90, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerpen

–         Grand Tour, Museum voor SchoneKunsten, Gent–         Speelhoven ’03. ‘Drifting – Dérive, Speelhoven, Aarschot

–         Work in Collaboration with Iñaki Bonillas, Galería OMR, Mexico City–         Storage and Display, Programmaartcenter, Mexico City 

2002

–         At Least Begin to Make an End. Strip Revert and Dewind, W139, Amsterdam

–         Henry!, Tweebronnen. Stedelijke Bibliotheek en Stadsarchief, Leuven

–         Ik of een ander / Moi ou un autre. Zelfportretten van Belgische kunstenaars / Autoportraits d’artistes belges, Dexia Gallery, Passage 44, Bruxelles/Brussel

–         Station2station, curated by Michel Dewilde & Robin Boone, Vlaanderen/Flandre 

2001

–         XIX in MMI in HISK. Expositie laureaten, HISK, Antwerpen–         Raamwerk, ING BBL Oostende, Oostende

–         Pieter Vermeersch/Robin Vermeersch, Galerie Kunst-Zicht, Gent  

Publications  

–         Hilde Van Gelder (ed.), Pieter Vermeersch. Acoustic Abstractions, Leuven, 2006

–         Bart De Baere, Henry Bounameaux, Contemporary Art in Belgium 2005, Bruxelles/Brussel, 2005

–         Pieter Vermeersch. Work in progress I > III, Antwerpen- Strombeek-Bever-Gent, 2005

–         Roadmap to an Artscene. An Introduction to Artists from Flanders, Belgium, (cd-rom), IBK, Gent, 2005

–         Decennium. Kunst in België na Documenta IX / L’art belge et l’après Documenta IX, Leuven-Gent, 2003