17 - 21 April
Private View: 16 April, 6 - 8pm
4 Cromwell Place
South Kensington
London SW7 2JE
Piet Raemdonck lives and works in direct contact with nature. Based in Belgium, Raemdonck’s home and studio are framed by large window panes, which act as expansive portals to the outside world, facilitating a dialogue between the ‘in & out’ that informs his artistic practice. Soaked with colour and movement, Raemdonck’s dynamic paintings showcase the artist’s role of interpreting a perpetual conversation between one’s interior world and the external landscape.
Always in keen observation, Raemdonck is sensitive to the simultaneity of colours that confront us in everyday life. Baby pink, fresh yellows, sky blue, mars violet and coloured greys—these colours pulse in syncopated rhythms, constructing our lived realities. The neighbourhood tree, flowers refracted in a glass, the kitchen chair—these ubiquitous forms are ever changing based on the time of day, or our subjective human moods. They appear and disappear in Raemdonck’s works, captured by his sensitivity to the natural world.
Within this visual chaos, Raemdonck is fascinated by how an isolated object can articulate itself, like a sculpture on a pedestal, from the right point of view. When the bright light of the sun over-exposes his studio’s interior, these independent forms can seemingly rise up to the sky—a process that is captured in his monumental canvases. In contrast, when evening falls, the objects of his studio might take on deep shadows, communicating a mysterious visual language. Colours and forms disappear into the unknown darkness.
Raemdonck’s work celebrates the frenetic rhythm, movement, and dance of the everyday colour that surrounds us. Dazzling panes of light, scumbled marks of textured shadow, and surprising geometric planes illustrate this constant interplay. In full embrace of these interactions, Raemdonck transforms moments of visual ephemera into significant compositions upon his canvases, allowing his materials to speak from their own tongue. Through his artwork, the artist dances ‘in & out’ of joyful control.
Text courtesy Katy Kim