Soft Opening: June 8, 2021 Duration: June 9 – August 21, 2021“I generally try to evoke a somewhat mysterious, fictitious, parallel world, a condensed version of reality that says something about us as human beings; how we often awkwardly stage our life, develop our relationships with others, our environment and our mortality (...) Beyond the support I use, I hope my works are like a consoling hand on the shoulder, a warm hug and a mental oasis of tranquillity. I want to give the spectator the feeling that he is not alone in the difficulties of dealing with this tragicomic existence and its obstacles.“Hans Op de BeeckIn his career of more than twenty years now, Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck has developed into an artistic jack-of-all-trades. Known mainly for his large, immersive installations, his sculptures and his art films, he also developed as a playwright, theatre and opera director, scenographer, and costume designer.In addition to these large, demanding projects, the artist for the first time decided in 2009 in his solo exhibition at the Galleria Borghese in Rome to solely show large watercolour paintings. Since then, alongside his major projects, he has steadily continued to make such works on paper, works that usually arise at night, when the artist finds the right concentration and mood that -to him- belong to this solitary form of creation at the studio.In his exhibition 'Works on Paper', we see a collection of large to small new works, in which traditional subjects such as the portrait and the landscape are a focus.Several life-size portraits bring the viewer into eye contact with the models, whose appearance is both contemporary and timeless. Op de Beeck revisits the genre in his own way; there are the calmness and intimacy that are characteristic of his work in general and the onset of a fictional outdoor space that emphasizes that the artist doesn’t want to hide the staging.The other works, mostly nocturnal landscapes, and small daily scenes, show us fictional nocturnal places, characters and moments that are often fairy-like, but which can also convey mystery, darkness, or slumbering derailment. In these landscapes and small daily scenes, as well as in the portraits, the artist wants to stay far away from the spectacular image, theoretical legitimation, or overly large references, but tries to evoke a simple and authentic gaze or an immersive mood through the small stories that take us to the zone of a reflective silence.

Hans Op de Beeck was born in Turnhout (B) in 1969. He lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. Op de Beeck has shown his work extensively in solo and group exhibitions around the world.
He had substantial institutional solo shows at the GEM Museum of Contemporary Art of The Hague, The Hague, NL (2004); MUHKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, B (2006); Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL (2007); the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, US (2010); Kunstmuseum Thun, CH (2010); Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Burgos, ES (2010); Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, IRL (2012); Kunstverein Hannover, D (2012); Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, USA (2013); the Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL, USA (2013); FRAC Paca, Marseille, F (2013); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Boston MA, US (2014); MOCA Cleveland, OH, US (2014); Sammlung Goetz, Munich, DE (2014); Screen Space, Melbourne, AU (2015); Château de Chimay, Chimay BE (2015); Espace 104, Paris, FR (2016); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, DE (2017); Fondazione Pino Pascali, Polignano a Mare, IT (2017); Kunstraum Dornbirn, DE (2017); Museum Morsbroich, DE (2017); Les Moulins, Boissy-le-Châtel, FR (2018); Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL (2018); Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, AT (2019).Op de Beeck has participated in numerous group shows at institutions such as The Reina Sofia, Madrid, ES; the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ, US; the Towada Art Center, Towada, JP; ZKM, Karlsruhe, DE; MACRO, Rome, IT; the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, GB; PS1, New York, NY, US; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Köln, DE; Hangar Bicocca, Milano, IT; the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, JP; 21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, US; The Drawing Center, New York, NY, US; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, AT; Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, CN; MAMBA, Buenos Aires, AR; Haus der Kunst, Munich, DE; Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna, IT; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, DE; Musée des Beaux Arts de Caen, Caen, FR; Kunstraum Dornbirn, Dornbirn, AU; Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, DE; Den Frie Center of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, DK; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels, BE; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, DE; Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, DE.His work has been invited to the Venice Biennale, Venice, IT; the Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, CN; the Aichi Triennale, Aichi, JP; the Singapore Biennale, Singapore, SG; Art Summer University, Tate Modern, London, GB; the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, IN and many other art events.