Gary Hume and Francis Upritchard in Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens
From 1 March 2020, the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens will be presenting two remarkable solo exhibitions of artists who have never been exhibited solo in Belgium before: the important and internationally renowned British artist Gary Hume (°1962) and the New Zealand artist Francis Upritchard (°1976) who will be reinterpreting her sensational show in 2018 at the Barbican Centre in London.
Gary Hume
Hume is linked to the YBA (Young British Artists), a group of conceptual artists that created a fuss in London in the early 1990s. Hume is known for his abstract paintings characteristically produced with industrial paint on aluminium relating as much to contemporary conflicts as to the vulnerability of human life. In his monumental paintings and sculptures, Hume often explores the hard-to-define boundaries between empathy, memory, beauty and violence.
The exhibition Destroyed School Paintings shows a new series of paintings stirred by recent conflicts in the Middle East. For two years, Hume collected photos from newspapers and magazines showing destroyed classrooms in these war zones. The remaining children's drawings on the walls and blackboards are at the origin of the Destroyed School Paintings series. They are Hume's response to the often, sensational images of war violence. The paintings are combined with a few Ghost Sculptures, a group of monumental, anthropomorphic sculptures based on Hume's famous Wonky Wheels.
Gary Hume
Destroyed School Paintings
1 March - 26 April 2020
Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens
Francis Upritchard
With her enigmatic figurative sculptures, New Zealand artist Francis Upritchard (born 1976) occupies a unique position within the contemporary sculpture scene. Upritchard’s oeuvre is characterized by in-depth experimentation with material, colour, shape and scale. The sculptures are devoid of any cultural, geographical or chronological boundaries. References can range from mokomokai and Japanese folklore to futuristic hippies. Fascinated by museology and design, Upritchard often presents her sculptures in self-designed displays and scenography.
The project at the museum Dhondt-Dhaenens is a reinterpretation of the Wetwang Slack exhibition at the Barbican Centre (London, 2018). Wetwang Slack, an archaeological site in East Yorkshire, was the starting point for exploring unusual materials such as balata, a rare Brazilian rubber from the Amazon forest. For Big Fish Eat Little Fish, Upritchard will create a number of new works in a scenography that embraces the architecture of MDD. The title refers to a drawing by Bruegel who, just like Upritchard's work, alludes to a meaningless world in which the powerful instinctively prey on the weak.
Francis Upritchard
Big Fish Eat Little Fish
1 March - 26 April 2020
Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens
Francis Upritchard, Peace Oakland, 2016 velvet, mesh, patch, rope, cotton Courtesy of the artist and Kate Macgarry, Londen
Francis Upritchard, Coin Hat, 2016. Medium Fabric, aluminium mesh, leather with buckle, bronze badge. Courtesy of the artist and Kate Macgarry, Londen
Francis Upritchard, New Life, 2018 Medium Steel and foil armature, paint, modelling material, Fabric Courtesy of the artist and Kate Macgarry, Londen
Francis Upritchard, New Life, 2018 Medium Steel and foil armature, paint, modelling material, Fabric Courtesy of the artist and Kate Macgarry, Londen
Francis Upritchard, Hot Future, 2018 Steel and foil armature, modelling material, fabric, paint, paste gems, glass beads, enamel Courtesy of the artist and Kate Macgarry, Londen
Francis Upritchard, Hot Future, 2018 Steel and foil armature, modelling material, fabric, paint, paste gems, glass beads, enamel Courtesy of the artist and Kate Macgarry, Londen