Art on Paper: many-sided

(© Laurette Atrux-Tallau - Courtesy Circonstance Gallery)

Art on Paper has moved on from the hotel rooms of its previous editions: this year, it will take place in the prestigious setting of Bozar. The event takes the form of 25 solo shows, displaying a wide variety of approaches to the use of an ultra-accessible medium that offers great scope for experimentation.

For a long time now, paper has ceased to be merely a material on which one can do sketches and roughs. Since the 19th century, it has come up in the world, gaining autonomy while still, for many artists, remaining an ideal tool for preparatory work. Paper is inexpensive and one can take all sorts of liberties with it. All that is made very clear over the three days of Art on Paper, a Brussels fair devoted to contemporary drawing and to the full range of possibilities offered by paper, whether those involve ink or watercolour, scissors or glue, textured paper, or even sculpted paper – as in the work of the Brussels-based Portuguese artist João Freitas, laureate of the event’s Young Talent Prize.

(© Abdelkader Benchamma - Courtesy Isabelle van den Eynde Gallery)

CARNAVAL INFERNAL
On show in the Terarken rooms at Bozar, Art on Paper is made up of 25 solo shows presented by as many galleries, both Belgian and foreign, and offers the public an opportunity to immerse itself in the world of the artists. These include well-known Brussels-based artists such as Peter Downsbrough (an American based in Molenbeek, who is exhibited by a Parisian gallery, Martine Aboucaya), known for his minimalist scenes with words and letters. The Hell’O Monsters collective (Alice Gallery, Brussels), with its infernal-carnivalesque visions, is also represented, as is Charlotte Beaudry (Yoko Uhoda Gallery, Liège), with her figures of girls in the first flower of womanhood.

(© Stephan Balleux - Courtesy D+T Project Gallery)

Other highlights include Marie Rosen (Rossicontemporary, Brussels), with her enigmas scattered throughout images that appear naive at first sight, the delicate montages of Guðný Rósa Ingimarsdóttir (Hverfisgallerí, Reykjavik), and Stephan Balleux (D+T Project Gallery, Brussels), who was the subject of a recent monographic exhibition at the Elsene/Ixelles Museum. Visitors are invited to vote for the artist who made the biggest impression on them: the winner will be awarded the Public’s Prize. At the Drawing Night (on Friday evening, from 7 pm to 10 pm), you can see three artists at work – Loïc Desroeux from Tournai (Prix du Hainaut in 2014 and Prix SOFAM Médiatine in 2015), Laetitia Gendre, and Rokko Miyoshi. In the hands of an artist, paper is many-sided…

ART ON PAPER 11 > 13/9, Bozar, www.artonpaper.be