NEVVEN is proud to present XXX a solo show by Belgian artist Tom Volkaert, exhibiting a new body of sculptures in epoxy, clay and silicone that inaugurates NEVVEN’s new gallery space in Göteborg. The exhibition is also part of the Extended program of the 10th edition of Göteborgs International Biennial of Contemporary Art (GIBCA).
Tom Volkaert depicts in remarkably composite sculptural constructions an abnormal fauna of creatures and totemic objects which are puzzling and mysteriously fascinating. The complex and sometimes even repelling representations, produced by the Belgian artist’s seemingly boundless creative élan vital, have a humorous and talismanic quality. His sculptures are constantly mixing contemporary visual references, science fiction atmospheres, horror thrills and characters which seem borrowed from hallucinated comics. At the same time, these works are able to channel a rich idiosyncratic expressive need in forms which are timely and compellingly engaging with contemporary aesthetic trends. The artistic language of Tom Volkaert is equally driven by an inexhaustibly experimental approach to materials. Exploring raw substances’ limits and possibilities, refusing classic processes and often mixing very different media in works that becomes technical chimeras — the research and uncontrolled manipulation of materials are fundamental aspects to Volkaert’s practice, often interestingly determining the sculptures’ shapes and convoyed contents.
For his exhibition at NEVVEN, Volkaert is presenting his newest epoxy large scale sculpture — towering two meters tall as a colourful and hyper-detailed slimy totem — and juxtaposes it to a new series of elegant black monochrome works in mixed ceramics. The title, XXX, seems to perfectly resume, in its fascinating elusiveness, the complex nature of this body of work and of his art in a broader sense. Exquisite and brutal — XXX presents a new step in Tom Volkaert’s fascinating, humorous and technically outstanding practice.
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