Hans Op de Beeck

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Lifelike Installations in Gray by Artist Hans Op de Beeck Highlight Narratives of Change

In The Boatman and Other Stories, Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck (previously) reflects on the fleeting stages of life through an evocative series of vignettes in uniform gray. The vast exhibition, which is on view through January 6, 2022, at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, Italy, features imagined subjects amidst their typical environments: A shirtless man steers his small rowing boat carrying a dog, chicken, and baskets of food through lily pads, a Brazilian dancer with feathered headdress rests on a tufted chair, and two hand-holding teenagers silently sit on a rocky cliff. Although the lifelike figures have vastly different identities and backgrounds, a universal theme of transition and impending change runs through each narrative.

Alongside the larger scenes, Op de Beeck presents still lifes comprised of disparate and anachronistic items, like the coral and candle-laden “Vanitas Table” and the oversized skull, fruit, and bottles tableau in “Vanitas XL.” Most of his works are entirely monochromatic, although minuscule cherry blossoms in “Wunderkammer (12)” disrupt the strict color palette with small, pink petals. Despite portraying seemingly banal moments, the artist’s sculptures and installations are imbued with a sense of wonder and mystery, serving as an entry point into the unknown histories behind the pieces.

In addition to The Boatman and Other Stories, Op de Beeck’s life-sized carousel “Danse Macabre” will sit in front of the Saint Walburga Church in Bruges until October 24 as part of the Bruges Triennial 2021. See more of his works spanning installation, sculpture, and watercolor portraits on his site and Instagram. (via ArtNet)

 

Art

Lily Pads and Reeds Surround a Sleeping Child in a New Monochrome Installation by Hans Op de Beeck

Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck (previously) creates dream-like installations that exist between what is real and imagined. The figural works represent realistic worlds that have been shifted slightly with their gray, monochrome appearance. In his new work My bed a raft, the room the sea and then I laughed some gloom in me, he depicts a girl fast asleep on a wooden raft with a book draped across her lap and a butterfly perched on her pillow. The raft is placed on a circular pedestal with a glassy finish that imitates a calm pond dotted with floating lily pads. Created in the round, the piece invites the viewer to view it at all angles, allowing a silent observation of the sleeping child’s dreams.

My bed a raft, the room the sea and then I laughed some gloom in me is included in his current solo exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York through April 6, 2019 alongside a new film titled Staging Silence (3). You can view more of his figural sculptures and installations on his website and Instagram.

 

Art

Lifelike Sculpted Figures and Immersive Monochrome Environments by Hans Op de Beeck

Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck creates life-size figural sculptures and immersive environments from materials such as coated wood, polyester, and pigmented plaster. These chosen materials turn his constructed figures and installations into a uniform shade of matte gray, which makes the viewer feel as if the world around them has been zapped of color.

In his 2016 work The Collector’s House, Op de Beeck produced a 2,600-square-foot monochrome space in which visitors served as the only element of color. The museum-like installation contained several life-size sculpted figures in addition to a library, grand piano, furniture, scattered still lifes, and a lily pool positioned squarely at the work’s center. This work, like many in his practice aimed to stimulate the viewer’s senses and to “create a form of visual fiction that delivers a moment of wonder, silence and introspection,” he explained in an artist statement.

Op de Beeck currently works in both Brussels and Gooik, Belgium. Over the last decade, Op de Beeck has mounted institution-based solo exhibitions at museums across the US and Europe, including the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (2010), MOCA Cleveland (2014), and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2017). You can view more of his lifelike figures and installations on his website.