Charles Lemaire

In place

Saturday 25 May to Saturday 22 June 2024

Vernissage: Saturday 25 May 16h–19h

Charles has been a dedicated supporter of Gallery Nostrum since the very beginning, and after several very successful group collaborations, we are delighted to present his first solo-exhibition at the gallery.

 “In art, for me, there should be nothing like "A place for everything, and everything in its place."

And why – in non-performing arts - do we focus exclusively on the artwork and so little on the artist at work? While the wording is sometimes the same: photography (the activity or its result), drawing, painting (verb or noun?)

What should an “exhibition” be? A still life (the French call it “dead nature”) of past artworks? An experience? A performance?

And what is the place of the exhibition? The gallery? The street? The city? The world?

Come, and find the art where it will be… and not only in the gallery”.

Charles will be present in the gallery throughout the course of the exhibition and will be “updating” the display both inside and outside these walls on an ongoing basis.

Please consult the table below and check our website and social media accounts regularly, to stay updated and not miss being in (the right) place.

Charles Lemaire (Malmedy, 1958) has been first a journalist in Africa, then later a software engineer before coming back to his first passion: photography. He receive a diploma of photography and later fine art drawing from the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Wavre. Since 2005, Charles has shown his work in numerous exhibitions including: [Derma] l’encre dans la peau, for the province of Namur (2014-2019). Charles is the author of two photography books A la limite, and Humeurs de modèles (2022). His work is part of both private and public collections.

For all enquiries or to arrange a viewing outside of normal opening hours, please email: gallerynostrum@gmail.com

For more photos please visit our instagram account.

Stéphanie Herremans 

"To paste the past"

du samedi 13 avril, 2024

au samedi 11 mai, 2024

vernissage: samedi 13 avril, 16h–19h

(FR) Gallery Nostrum a le plaisir de présenter une exposition solo d'œuvres défiant toute catégorisation, 

de l'artiste belge Stéphanie Herremans.

« J’aime détourner une illustration de son sens premier. Loin de toute logique, construites comme une écriture automatique, mes créations ne cherchent pas à montrer la réalité telle qu'elle est mais ​incitent à s'interroger et à percevoir la face cachée des choses. »

Les travaux de Stéphanie Herremans sont à la fois intemporels et empreints d’une certaine nostalgie où le noir et le blanc apportent lumière et les quelques nuances de couleur réconfortent. Lignes et courbes sont omniprésentes.

Après avoir travaillé le collage de manière approfondie durant de nombreuses années, sa technique évolue progressivement en mixant parfois les mediums et en utilisant des supports variés.

Stéphanie Herremans est née à Bruxelles en 1982 et vit maintenant à Braine-l'Alleud. Autodidacte, elle a participé à de nombreux projets (tels que « Kunst im Fluss » en Allemagne ou pour le Musée d’Art fantastique à Bruxelles) et expositions collectives (entre autres : la Verbeke Fondation à Anvers, le Musée du Docteur Guislain à Gand ou la Kunstkan Galerie à Amsterdam). L’exposition à la Gallery Nostrum sera la seconde exposition individuelle de Stéphanie.

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(EN) Gallery Nostrum is excited to present a solo exhibition of works that defy categorisation, by Belgian artist, Stéphanie Herremans.

“I like to divert an illustration from its original meaning. Far from any logic, constructed like automatic writing, my creations do not seek to show reality as it is but encourage people to question and perceive the hidden side of things ».

Stéphanie Herremans' work is both timeless and imbued with a certain nostalgia where black and white bring light and the few shades of colour comfort. Lines and curves are omnipresent.

After having worked on collage in depth for many years, her technique gradually evolved, sometimes mixing mediums and using varied supports.

Stéphanie Herremans was born in Brussels in 1982 and now lives in Braine-l'Alleud. Self-taught, she has participated in numerous projects (such as “Kunst im Fluss” in Germany or for the Museum of Fantastic Art in Brussels) and group exhibitions (among others: the Verbeke Fondation in Antwerp, the Musée du Docteur Guislain in Ghent or the Kunstkan Galerie in Amsterdam). This exhibition at Gallery Nostrum will be Stéphanie’s second solo exhibition.

For more photos please visit our instagram account.

Monique Prignon

Marcher entre les mots,

samedi 9 mars - samedi 6 avril, 2024

Vernissage: samedi 9 mars, 16h -19h

Rejoignez-nous pour cette exposition immersive de l'œuvre aux multiples facettes de l'artiste belge Monique Prignon.

scroll down for english -

Monique Prignon est une artiste originaire de Bruxelles et travaille aujourd’hui dans la province de Namur.
Depuis l’enfance, comme bon nombre d’entre nous, elle peint, découpe, assemble, colle, noue, enveloppe, accroche, unit, boucle, tricote, construit, installe, écrit et photographie.
En 1995, elle décide de se former à l’académie des Beaux-Arts, D. Fournal, de Wavre, et poursuit par les Ateliers ‘grafische Vormgeving’, Hans Van Dijck, et « Project », Willy Van Buggenhout, puis Lieve Van Thienen au Rhok, à Etterbeek, Bruxelles ; ensuite, l’atelier création transdisciplinaire, François Huon et Pierre Toby, Ecole des Arts, Braine l'Alleud. Depuis 1997, elle a participé à de nombreuses expositions collectives et personnelles en Belgique et à l’étranger.
Le chemin de la vie est son seul fil rouge, son travail est centré sur l’être humain sous toutes ses facettes : sa beauté, sa douleur, sa spiritualité, sa richesse, son identité, ses paradoxes, sa rencontre à la solitude, ses approches culturelles.
Au fil des années, respectueuse de l’environnement, sa pratique l’a amenée à utiliser des matériaux de recyclage et se limiter à l’utilisation d’outils respectueux de la nature.
Ses œuvres englobent un large éventail de techniques et d'approches artistiques.
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L’enveloppe de l’infini contenu est enfermé dans les contours des mots.

Ces mots qui de tous horizons émergent sans fin, tels des vagues, jusqu’à l’esprit.
Ces mots qui s’échappent du fond des livres entre les respirations si douces à peine audibles.
Ces mots, indiscrétions involontaires, attrapés au vol dans le train, dans la rue, dans l’intimité ou dans la foule.
En silence, l’esprit ordinaire, un jour ordinaire reçoit une myriade d'impressions, banales, fantasques, évanescentes ou tranchantes comme une lame d’acier.
Et, à mesure que ces sensations s’unissent pour former la vie jour après jour, les pensées glissent en nous, entre nous, s’éloignent de nous et loin de nous éclairer servent souvent à colporter et à nous éparpiller.
Et ….
Dans le silence de ma tour d’ivoire viennent se dessiner des émotions, des sensations qui bout à bout prennent vie. Des bouts de papier déchirés, des morceaux de cartons, des fils qui s’assemblent, des déchets. Je les malaxe, les déchire, les colle, les écris, les brûle, les manipule, les efface.
La douceur du graphite s’associe à cette écriture et se confie au support papier, réceptacle impressionné qui a subi lui-même les passages du temps.
Ces liens s’entrecroisent, s’ouvrent vers d’autres espaces et vont vers de nouvelles rencontres.
Sublime ordinaire.

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(eng) Gallery Nostrum is delighted to present an immersive exhibition of the multi-faceted work of Belgian artist, Monique Prignon.

Monique Prignon is an artist originally from Brussels, now working in the province of Namur.
Since childhood, like many of us, she has painted, cut, assembled, glued, knotted, wrapped, hung, looped, knitted, built, installed, written and photographed.
In 1995, she decided to train at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, D. Fournal, in Wavre, and continued at the Ateliers 'grafische Vormgeving', Hans Van Dijck, and 'Project', Willy Van Buggenhout, then Lieve Van Thienen at the Rhok, in Etterbeek, Brussels; then the Atelier création transdisciplinaire, François Huon and Pierre Toby, Ecole des Arts, Braine l'Alleud. Since 1997, she has taken part in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Belgium and abroad.
The path of life is her only common thread, and her work focuses on the human being in all his facets: his beauty, his pain, his spirituality, his wealth, his identity, his paradoxes, his encounter with solitude, his cultural approaches.
Over the years, respectful of the environment, her practice has led her to use recycled materials and limit herself to the use of nature-friendly tools.
Her work encompasses a wide range of techniques and artistic approaches.
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The envelope of infinite content is enclosed in the outline of words.

Words that emerge endlessly from all horizons, like waves, to the mind.
Words that escape from the depths of books between soft, barely audible breaths.
These words, involuntary indiscretions, caught in flight on the train, in the street, in intimacy or in a crowd.
In silence, the ordinary mind, on an ordinary day, receives a myriad of impressions, banal, whimsical, evanescent or sharp as a steel blade.
And as these sensations come together to form life day after day, thoughts slip inside of us, between us, away from us and, far from enlightening us, often serve to peddle with and scatter us.
And ....
In the silence of my ivory tower, emotions and sensations emerge, string together and come to life. Torn scraps of paper, pieces of cardboard, threads that assemble, garbage. I knead them, tear them, glue them, write them, burn them, manipulate them, erase them.
The softness of graphite seeps into this writing and entrusts itself to the paper, an impressed vessel that has itself undergone the passage of time.
These ties are woven together and open up to different spaces, travel on to new encounters.
Sublime ordinary.

For more photos please visit our instagram account.

« terrain »

Isabelle Griffart (Fr)

Brigitte Herpigny (Be)

Mathias Roloff (De) 

Saturday 27 January, - Saturday 17 February, 2024

Vernissage: Saturday 27 January, 16h -19h

Three artists explore temporal, spatial and corporeal terrains.

(En) Isabelle Griffart (Fr) trained as a graphic designer, Isabelle Griffart's pictorial work revolves mainly around the representation of landscapes, in a search for simplification of form and color, and aneconomy of means that respond to each other.

Her love of nature, the magic and power it contains, plays a role in her choice of subjects, in the representation of minerals, of superimposed textures, in the notion of wear and tear due to the seasons and the passage of time. Her landscapes are dreamlike, fantastical, sometimes paradisiacal, sometimes disturbing.

Her paintings seek to go beyond our ordinary world to make extra-ordinary places, places that blend the near and the distant, where we dive in as if we were setting off into the unknown. It's an invitation to travel.

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(En) Brigitte Herpigny (Be) is initially a scientist. Returning from a 2-year round-the-world sailing trip, she took up painting in the early 90s, in parallel with her career as a researcher and teacher. In 2012, she began studying engraving at the École des Beaux-Arts in Wavre (Be), graduating in 2021. She has recently embarked on multidisciplinary projects in which she uses her etchings as building blocks.

From painting to engraving to multi-technique sculpture, B.H.'s non-figurative work is the terrain of all possibilities that of the creative gesture as well as that of the reading of the finished work.
In the work presented here, she takes up a theme dear to her heart, that of terrains, fractures, faults and fissures as paths to reach further. The bas-relief murals and sculptures are made from recycled cardboard, on which she maroons monotypes that break up the edges already present. In this way, the images created sometimes combine the hardness of the mineral with the fluidity of the organic.  By blurring the lines at the source of her inspiration, B.H. offers viewers complete freedom of interpretation. This is the great magic of abstraction.

All the works presented here are the result of mixed techniques, using recycled cardboard glued and painted on which monotypes printed on tissue paper are mounted.

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(EN) Mathias Roloff (De) was born in Berlin in 1979. From 2000-2005 he studied at the University of the Arts Berlin, under prof. Volker Stelzmann. His work has been exhibited throughout the world and is included in numerous private, public and museum collections.

Looking at a person (a figure) I understand them as an architectural construction of figurative elements ­– more than only to have an impression of the outward appearance, the “cover/shell” of the body. The constellations made of these constructions can be understood as scaffolds that support each other or fall apart. The shape of each scaffold evokes associations with particular emotions and states of mind, or with variations of interpersonal relationships. To focus on these concept, I usually draw my figures to be self-referential and more or less undressed - they are not living with a specific time or culture, but to be perceived just as a human individual. The searching lines build up a multi-layered drawing during the artistic process, in which different positions of the figure can be discovered. This kind of drawing visualizes my conception of the human being itself: the figure is staggering/tumbling - just as we are staggering/tumbling in most situations of our lives.
In doing so, they combine several states of mind in one moment and is torn between the inner and outer ideas of how they should act. 

Waving Flags in Space.

A group exhibition.

Saturday 16th December, -

Saturday 20th January, 2024.

Vernissage with seasonal refreshments:

Saturday 16th December, 16h -19h. 

Participating artists: Mariángela Abbruzzese (Ve), Florian Breetzke (De), Chris Dennis (UK), Antonio Franchetti (It), Isabelle Griffart (Fr), Brigitte Herpigny (Be), Stéphanie Herremans (Be), Caroline Ledoux (Be), Charles Lemaire (Be), Marie-Charlotte Nouza (Fr), Monique Prignon (Be), Mathias Roloff (De), Olivier Van Uffel (Be), Ehrling White (Ca).

(En) 'Waving flags in space' is an attempt to herald some ‘perhaps’ undiscovered or underappreciated talents.

This group exhibition features the works of just some of the artists we have worked with during our first year in Belgium and artists we are looking forward to working with in 2024. These include some exceptional local artists such as Caroline Ledoux, Olivier Van Uffel, Charles Lemaire, Monique Prignon and Stéphanie Herremans and from further afield such as Ehrling White (Canada), Mariángela Abbruzzese (Venezuela), Florian Breetzke (Germany), Marie-Charlotte Nouza (France) and Chris Dennis (United Kingdom). 

(FR) “Agiter des drapeaux dans l'espace" (Waving flags in space) est une tentative d'annoncer certains talents "peut-être" non découverts ou sous-appréciés.

Cette exposition collective présente les œuvres de quelques-uns des artistes avec lesquels nous avons travaillé au cours de notre première année en Belgique et des artistes avec lesquels nous nous réjouissons de travailler en 2024. Il s'agit d'artistes locaux exceptionnels tels que Caroline Ledoux, Olivier Van Uffel, Charles Lemaire, Monique Prignon et Stéphanie Herremans et d'artistes plus lointains tels que Ehrling White (Canada) et Mariángela Abbruzzese (Venezuela), Florian Breetzke (Allemagne), Marie-Charlotte Nouza (France) et Chris Dennis (UK).

in apnea

Paintings by Caroline Ledoux.

Friday November 10 – Saturday December 9.

Vernissage: Friday November 10, 17h – 20h.

Apéro with the Artist: Saturday November 11, 16h – 18h.

Man is captive and a stranger to a world that escapes him. 

Animist thought.

Pastel colored bunkers, refined or dark landscapes, the world is magical and scary.

The landscape is active.

Fascinated but resigned, spectral beings, wander melancholically and passively in this strange universe for which they do not have the codes.

In apnea. Between two eras.

And our ruins in freeze frame…

Caroline is originally from Namur (Be). In 2014 she began studying painting at the Academy of Fine arts in Wavre (Be). Since then she has participated in numerous exhibitions across Belgium and in 2020 was awarded the public prize at the Concours des arts plastiques et visuels de Nivelles (Be). Recent exhibitions include Osmoses, Osmosekes  at Espace Hors Les Murs (Tangissart, Be) and Cracks at Wetground (Brussels, Be).

This is Caroline’s first solo-exhibition at Gallery Nostrum. Her work was previously included in the Galleries’ group exhibition bodies: noun/verb (Jan ’23) and JOY SANDWICH (Jul ’23), a world-wide project devised by renowned British artist, Stuart Semple.

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« Sull’Impronta »

24 June - 8 July 2023

Vernissage: Saturday 24 June, 16hr - 19hr 

Performance: Saturday 1 July, 17hr

With percussionist, Stefano Corbetta.

       Two sculptural researchers have as a common trait, 

       the use of imprint to create a « space of sound ».

On one side , the testimony of a past sound; traces like  fossils that reconstruct a score, a tactile path of listening.

On the other, couples of elements ; sensitive to enter into a relationship of acoustic resonance.

The contrast between flat and curved volumes, between full and empty, distinguishes both works.

In one case, it coexists in a single support that offers us the photograph of a past sound. In the other, it takes the form of a dualism of acoustic systems, inert but potentially capable of generating sound.

Andrea Strizzi is an Italian sculptor trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, where he currently works. His current project "Toccare il suono - Impronte Sonore"  proposes a series of audio-tactile installations, created with the participation of percussionist Stefano Corbetta.

The drumsticks of the musician leave on the surface of the fresh clay the traces of the sound action, the sound of which is recorded. The baked clay, which bears witness to it in the manner of a score, allows you to tactilely retrace the generative path of the work, accompanied by listening through headphones to the sounds that have marked its furrows.

Francesco Strizzi, trained in lutherie at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria di Milano, graduated in sculpture from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera and in Sound-Art at the ARD&NT Institute in Milan. He proposes a series of works entitled « Relazioni Invisibili » in which two types of geometric solids, arranged as inert elements, carry within them the potential generation of a harmonic sound.

The two systems, parallelepipeds and hollow spheres are tuned two by two on the same frequency and if coupled, they enter into a sympathetic relationship, they resonate, they generate a sound.

The sounds resulting from these dualisms, recorded, becomes a musical composition that accompanies the visual tension between the elements.

Watch a video about their work and the exhibition,

HERE 

Gallery Nostrum Presents, S.C.U.M.

  An international exhibition of female and female-identifying, analogue, collage artists.

  May 20th – June 18th 2023. 

In 1967, Valerie Solanas published the SCUM Manifesto(the    Society for Cutting Up Men). In 1968, she was charged with the shooting and attempted murder of Andy Warhol.

This exhibition is not about that.

There is a rich history of collage, decoupage and assemblage in Belgium and S.C.U.M (Selecting and Cutting Up Magazines) will bring to Wavre (BE), analogue collage artists from all over the world.

Previous group exhibitions at Gallery Nostrum have been carefully selected and for such a small area, generously spaced. S.C.U.M will pack the gallery, with dozens of works. Unable to maintain a polite distance, they will jostle for space, chatter amongst themselves and vie for attention; transforming the gallery into a collective collage of some of the best examples of contemporary analogue collage.

Participating artists: 

HP Heinz (UK), Michelle Granville (IE), 

Charlotte Callens (BE), Tetiana Dudka (UA), 

Ottavia Marchiori (IT), Ruxandra Niculae (RO), 

Mariángela Abbruzzese (VE), Olga Gvindzhyliya (PT), 

Delinconnue (RO), Mallie Hellström (DE), 

Yuliia Lukianova (UA), Zuza Rozanska (DE), 

Paris Triantafilou (US), Sophie Fourneau (BE), 

Vira Dutchyn (UA), Karin Vyncke (BE), 

 Christel Marchal (BE), Jessica Russo Scherr (US).   

For installation photos please visit our blog and instagram account.

support group

'support group' is an exhibition featuring the work of Francesco Battistello (IT), Laura Dauchet (FR) and Stefano Moras (IT).

Three artists explore the existence or absence of 'support'  figuratively and  literally in their work.

11.03. 2023  - 29.04.2023

For installation photos please visit our blog and instagram account.

bodies: noun / verb.

noun

plural noun: bodies.

The physical structure, including the bones, flesh, and organs, of a person or an animal.

verb

3rd person present: bodies

To give material form to something abstract.

Inge Dompas, Caroline Ledoux, Charles Lemaire, Antoine vans, 

Ehrling White.

January 14 – February 18, 2023.

Vernissage Saturday January 14. 16hr -19hr.

The work of Inge Dompas (BE) is about the transiency and volatility of life. The transient figures she observes depict the anonymity of the masses as well as the rare and precious moments of true contact and intimacy. www.ingedompas.com

Caroline Ledoux’s (BE) current focus is our impossibility as a species to exist in the world. Deserted landscapes peopled only with silhouettes, buildings or armchairs serve as fossils of our existence. Her work places us on the threshold of a self-regulating world that chooses to continue without man. instagram.com/ledoux.caroline

The photographs of Charles Lemaire (BE) concentrate on the human body and skin (tattoos, scars, body modifications, aging). With these works, the focus is intensified to the point where the flesh becomes a landscape and the marks of human inhabitants and interaction are clear. www.charleslemaire.eu

The film director Antoine Vans (BE) uses painting as an antidote to some of the lighter aspects of his “other profession”. His canvases embody the frustrations he would otherwise be unable to capture and express. instagram.com/antoine.vans

In describing some of the pieces included in this show, Ehrling White (Ca/US) paraphrased a text by David Hinton. That there is a bridge linking the body itself and the act of art-making. The corporeal form that creates, or lives, and sheds its skin. The leaving it behind, is a natural process. Maybe art making, being very human and laden with history, thoughts, afterthoughts, and second thoughts, is a neurotic attempt to calcify some fraction of it all, give it a body, like a fossil, for others to make of what they wish, or not, long after we’ve moved on. www.ehrlingwhite.com

For installation photos please visit our instagram account.

What remains…

22.10.22 – 23.12.22

Vernissage: Saturday 22nd October 15hr -18hr.

Participating artists: Dilum Coppens, Hadrien Loumaye, Axelle VM Philtjens, Mathieu V Staelens, Francesco Strizzi.

With the question, what remains…? Comes the insinuation that something has been lost, removed, destroyed or forgotten.

What that could have been, be it corporeal, spiritual or temporal, was at the forefront when selecting the work for this first, group exhibition at Gallery Nostrum.

What remains… is an exhibition of five artists living and working in Belgium.

Dilum Coppens (1993 Asse, Be) is preoccupied with meaning and the search for its true nature. He intertwines text and imagery, mythology and modern references. From the surviving fragments of ancient texts (the rest being lost or deliberately destroyed) he invites multiple interpretations that refuse to be tied down.

It appears at first glance, many elements or distractions have been removed from these paintings by Hadrien Loumaye (1999 Brussels, Be). The saturated colour palettes and the delicate nervousness of the gestures, creates an ambiguity to produce canvases that defy their scale.

What remains of you, by Axelle VM Philtjens (2000 Alken, Be) was the starting point for this exhibition. She views the world in layers and transient parts.

To her, photography is a tool to expose and dissect these layers. With the destructive techniques of her experimental polaroids, she exposes facets to the viewer of themselves and the world that surrounds them.

Mathieu V Staelens (1980 Ostend, Be) has a long history of investigating the figure, exploring identity and the personality industry. With his recent subjects, the mask, the costume, the meat has be stripped away. In this exhibition, two of Mathieu’s recent skeletal works are shown alongside two older pieces, where the figure is absent, leaving small but grandly poetic works.

The sculptor Francesco Strizzi (1990 Guissano, Italy), captures the folded stages of origami shapes. It is what remains of this meeting that is framed by the light and shadow on the white plane of the plaster.

For installation photos please visit our instagram account.

‘Hello?’ – Paintings by Chris Dennis.

September  3rd – October  15th,  2022

Gallery Nostrum’s first exhibition features an artist showing for the first time in Belgium but whose work is very familiar to the gallery.

‘Hello?’ will present a carefully selected group of paintings made up from three series he has been working on for over 2 decades.

  ‘My paintings are produced in lieu of a 'real' conversation and display a preoccupation with surface and texture. The figures in these ‘Therianthropic’ pieces, are not some other-worldly creatures from Science fiction. The narratives have been carefully obfuscated and the likeness hidden.  The Suffocates and The Aviarist series are two sides of a manufactured fugue state, from where, I explore ideas about biography /autobiography, authorship and the unreliable source.

The ʻPlease Be Quiet, Please’ paintings are continual. The title comes from the first short-story collection by American author, Raymond Carver called: Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976). The paintings are the essence of the larger, more narrative paintings reduced back down to just paint. Like speech or thought bubbles, it spills into, or regurgitates out of disembodied heads from previous works.

‘Things you should have said and the things you wish you hadn’t’.

Chris Dennis (1974) grew up in England. He studied at Bournemouth Arts University, completed his BA (Hons) at the University of Wolverhampton and was awarded his MFA from the University of Art in San Francisco (USA). He has lived and exhibited across the United States, New Zealand and Europe. In 2021, after 5 years living and exhibiting in Berlin, Chris moved with his family, to Belgium.