 Untitled, 2006 Oil on canvas, 200 x 160 cms / 78 3/4 x 63 ins Stef Driesen Alison Jacques Gallery is pleased to announce the first European solo exhibition of Belgian painter Stef Driesen. In a series of new paintings, Stef Driesen synthesizes body and landscape, merging human figures with elements of nature. The works re-examine Old Master painting, in particular Northern European and Flemish artists such as Memling and Van Eyck. Stef Driesen draws inspiration from the compositions, colour palettes, and themes explored by these Old Masters, and is inspired by the way in which they used all of these elements to project a vision of life in their time, political, religious, romantic or otherwise. Stef Driesen combines these art historical references with personal narratives in what could be seen as an investigation of his own sexual identity. A figure is always present in or under the painted image, often as a submerged erotic image, and the paintings are imbued with undercurrents of hidden desire. Yet although sexuality and sexual identity play an important part in the work of Stef Driesen, the central theme of his work remains essentially emotional. Stef Driesen's paintings elicit a sense of mythic romanticism from environments that are at once beautiful and strange. The sensual brushstrokes and fleshy palette obscure the distinction between figure and environment, projecting human characteristics upon natural scenery. Watery mountain scapes and dramatic skies frame ambiguously figurative foreground elements. Soft pinks and flashes of azure punctuate dark canvases highlighting rivers through the picture plane and revealing landscapes beyond. Ultimately Stef Driesen's compositions expand space, opening up an imaginary dimension into a world full of the theatrical and fantastic. Stef Driesen was born in Hasselt, Belgium (1966) and lives and works in Antwerp. He studied at the Academie Voor Schone Kunsten in Hasselt, Belgium. Driesen has had two recent solo shows in the United States; Harris Lieberman, New York (2006) and Marc Foxx, Los Angeles (2005). Driesen's work was featured in an exhibition at the MADRe Museum in Naples earlier this year. The exhibition at Alison Jacques Gallery will be his first European solo show. Exhibition: 23 November - 22 December 2006 Gallery hours: Tues-Sat 10 am - 6 pm Alison Jacques Gallery 4 Clifford Street GB-London W1X 1RB Telephone +44 020 7287 7675 Fax +44 020 7287 7674 Email info@alisonjacquesgallery.com www.alisonjacquesgallery.com |
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