As part of Art Brussels Insights, we spoke with gallerists about their upcoming SOLO presentations at the fair.
Harlan Levey, owner Harlan Levey Projects | What will be the focus of your SOLO at Art Brussels?
We will present a SOLO Project by Emmanuel Van der Auwera: VideoSculpture XX (The World’s 6th sense). This is the latest in Van der Auwera’s ongoing series of VideoSculptures, which he began in 2015 while at the HISK. This type of work has since been acquired by the Kanal/Centre Pompidou, the Dallas Museum of Art, The Stockholm School of Economics, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum and many private collections in Europe and the United States.
What other current/upcoming projects by Emmanuel Van der Auwera are you excited about?
He currently has a solo exhibition titled “White Noise” at 214 Projects in Dallas, Texas. The Dallas Museum of Art recently acquired one of his video sculptures. Emmanuel has been working on a new body of films relating to the notion of the “Crisis Actor” and investigating the school shooting phenomenon. This work builds on his previous film trilogy and involves similar technologies to previous works and continued collaborations with neuroscientists and the United States Department of Homeland Security who are developing first person active shooter games to deal with the school shooting epidemic. These new works will premier in a two venue show during Brussels Gallery Weekend with two films presented as part of his solo exhibition at the Botanique Museum and the third in the gallery.
Do you have any advice for young, aspiring art collectors?
Collecting is so personal and collections tend to find their personalities over time like a writer finds his voice. Build relationships and lines of inquiry, research the artists you want to acquire work by.
Patrick De Brock, owner Patrick De Brock | What will be the focus of your SOLO at Art Brussels?
The presentation will focus on Cook’s most recent ‘band’ paintings. These works are characterised by their horizontal, repetitive compositions that use space more sculpturally, implying mass and gravity.
What other current/upcoming projects by Ethan Cook are you excited about?
Ethan’s current solo exhibition at T293 in Rome, running through April 27th.
Do you have any advice for young, aspiring art collectors?
Buy quality.
Ebony Hayes, director Martos Gallery | What will be the focus of your SOLO at Art Brussels?
The focus of our Kayode Ojo solo presentation at Art Brussels will be an extension of Ojo’s first New York solo exhibition that he had at Martos Galley in November 2018. The work considers with luxury signifiers; playing with both illusions and delusions of glamour, all the while embracing the grandeur of it all. It considers: to whom is the commodity marketed, and what of the emotive gestures it eludes. We will show a series of new self-portraits and sculptures, including an, almost, shimmering necklace sitting atop a high pedestal – almost as though on display in a museum of fine artefacts, or a Tiffany’s showroom.
What other current/upcoming projects by Kayode Ojo are you excited about?
He is currently in a group show at Praz Delavallade in Los Angeles. And he will be in a show hosted by Flash Art and the Ethical Fashion Initiative in Milan, opening April 8 and on through April 26.
Do you have any advice for young, aspiring art collectors?
Buy what you love! Don’t buy a piece of art because someone has convinced you it’s something you must own. You should own art works that you want to live with and look at, by artists and galleries you like and want to support.
Eduardo Secci, owner Eduardo Secci | What will be the focus of your SOLO at Art Brussels?
For Lea Guldditte Hestelund’s solo-presentation there will be a focus on her interest in how fiction and science fiction can be used as a mean to discuss bodily otherness, and to suggest alternative ways of looking at identity and gender. There will be a series of smaller marble works and leather carriers, which are also worn by the marbles. Some hanging some belted. These works are somehow hovering between something humanlike and something more alien; a different kind of bodily presence.
What other current/upcoming projects by Lea Guldditte Hestelund are you excited about?
Arken Museum in Denmark has recently acquired two outdoor sculptures of Hestelund for their sculpture park in the landscape surrounding the museum, and these will be revealed in May. In October she will take part in a traveling exhibition evolving around post humanism, first opening at Bornholm Art Museum in Denmark, and afterwards at Muzeum Narodowe (The National Museum of Stettin) in Poland.
Do you have any advice for young, aspiring art collectors?
We believe that young collectors should try to really understand the work deeply and not focus on just the name of the artist or who is selling that work… They should not only get intrigued by what they like but they should try pushing their boundaries further and try to understand the works deeply.
Images by order of appearance:
– Installation view “White Noise”, 214 Projects, Dallas, Texas, courtesy Emmanuel Van der Auwera and Harlan Levey Projects
– Ethan Cook, Untitled, 2019, Hand woven cotton canvas, 208.3 x 193 cm
– Kayode Ojo, Closed Audition: ASOS Snow Leopard Fur Coat – Cream, 2018, inkjet print mounted on museum board, 43 ⅞ × 32 inches (111.44 × 81.28 cm) (framed) Edition of 3 plus II AP
– Lea Guldditte Hestelund. Courtesy Eduardo Secci Contemporary
– Jaclyn Conley, Easter Sunday Oval Office, 2019, oil on panel, 244 x 162,5 x 5 cm (96 x 64 x 2 in)
– Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, installation view, Infinite Garden: From Giverny to Amazonia, 2017, Centre Pompidou-Metz. Courtesy the artist and Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brussels, New York
– Roland Quetsch, IF503833, 2017, 46 x 28 x 30 cm, wood, fabric, epoxy resins. Copyright: Studio Villaggi, courtesy Ceysson & Bénétière