Installation View: Girl with Dog and Chinese 2 Birds Midst Flowers
both 2012, oil on canvas, 79 x 79 in.
Detail: Girl with Dog, 2012
Cleopatra, 2012, oil on canvas, 79 x 79 in.
From the Press Release:
Mike Weiss Gallery is pleased to present Treasury, a new exhibition of paintings by Belgian artist Jan De Vliegher. For his first solo exhibition in the United States, De Vliegher creates a series of monumental paintings which reference the artist’s obsessive hunt for otherwise overlooked porcelain plates. United in their ritualistic and repetitive compositions the series of circular abstractions reveal De Vliegher’s fascination with the painting experience while also speaking to broader themes of contemporary collecting.
Like a cultural anthropologist, De Vliegher meticulously documents his varied sources of inspiration in their traditional museum context. The lush colors, dramatic brushstrokes and overpowering scale of his work, however, starkly diverge from the otherwise controlled subject matter. The subsequent rush-infused paintings transcend their representational qualities and assume the commanding presence of contemporary abstractions. In the same way Baselitz’s act of turning his paintings upside down avoided a literal and linear interpretation, De Vliegher ignores the differences within the distinct plate genres—from French Rococo to Qing dynasty—and imbues the work with a palpable essence that is reflective of the artist’s unique, energetic input.
Like a cultural anthropologist, De Vliegher meticulously documents his varied sources of inspiration in their traditional museum context. The lush colors, dramatic brushstrokes and overpowering scale of his work, however, starkly diverge from the otherwise controlled subject matter. The subsequent rush-infused paintings transcend their representational qualities and assume the commanding presence of contemporary abstractions. In the same way Baselitz’s act of turning his paintings upside down avoided a literal and linear interpretation, De Vliegher ignores the differences within the distinct plate genres—from French Rococo to Qing dynasty—and imbues the work with a palpable essence that is reflective of the artist’s unique, energetic input.
Detail: Venus Disarming Cupid, 2012
Installation view.
Installation view. Individual paintings 43 x 43 in.
Jan De Vliegher lives and works in Bruges, Belgium. The artist received his Master of Fine Arts degree at the Hoger Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten Sint-Lucas Ghent, in Belgium, in 1986. He has exhibited extensively in Europe including Knokke, Belgium; Venice, Italy; Stockholm, Sweden and Berlin, Germany.
Detail from grouping above.
Title unknown, 2012, oil on canvas, 79 x 79 in.
Ganymede, 2012, oil on canvas, 79 x 79 in.
Detail: Ganymede, 2012
Jan De Vliegher: Treasury
Through June 9, 2012
520 W 24th Street
New York, NY 10001
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