“I seek to create a form of fictitiously realistic art that delivers a moment of wonder, silence, and introspection.”
Brussels-based artist Hans Op de Beeck was born in Turnhout in 1969. He works in a variety of media, seeking to re-examine and re-purpose traditional art historical notions such as the panorama, the landscape, and the German-Romantic notions of melancholy and the sublime. Op de Beeck’s sculptures, drawings, paintings, and films often consist of a simulacral and highly atmospheric architectural space in imaginary locales. These empty and anonymous spaces focus on the tension between the artificial and the real, raising universal questions about the nature of the creative process and the role of the artist as an illusive craftsman.
Hans Op de Beeck (BE) produces large installations, sculptures, films, drawings, paintings, photographs and texts. His work is a reflection on our complex society and the universal questions of meaning and mortality that resonate within it. He regards man as a being who stages the world around him in a tragi-comic way. Above all, Op de Beeck is keen to stimulate the viewers’ senses, and invite them to really experience the image. He seeks to create a form of visual fiction that delivers a moment of wonder, silence and introspection.
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, The Hague, NL (2004); MUHKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, BE (2006); Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL (2007); Towada Art Center, Towada, JP (2008); Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, US (2010); Kunstmuseum Thun, CH (2011); Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Burgos, ES (2011); Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, IE (2012); Kunstverein Hanover, DE (2012); Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, US (2013); Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL, US (2013); FRAC Paca, Marseille, FR (2013); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, US (2014); MOCA, Cleveland, 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, Leverkusen, DE (2017); Galleria Continua, Boissy-le-Châtel, FR (2018); Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, NL (2018); Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, AT (2019);
Op de Beeck participated in numerous group shows at institutions such as The Reina Sofia, Madrid, ES; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona, US; ZKM, Karlsruhe, DE; MACRO, Rome, IT; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, GB; PS1, New York, US; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Köln, DE; Hangar Bicocca, Milano, IT; 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; Den Frie Center of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, DK; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels, BE; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main, DE; Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, DE;
His work was invited for the Venice Biennale, Venice, IT; Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, CN; Aichi Triennale, Aichi, JP; Singapore Biennale, Singapore, SG; Art Summer University, Tate Modern, London, GB; Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, IN, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, US; Art Basel Unlimited, Basel, CH, Setouchi Triennale, Shodoshima, JP, and many other art events.