For his first solo exhibition in a gallery, the young Belgian artist Fabrice SAMYN (°1981) decided to show his work under the generic title Restoring the abyss. He assigns himself the task to ‘restore the abyss' by means of reproducing and re-interpreting details of old paintings ; either through painting (such as the details of flames coming from the oeuvre of Georges de La Tour) or photographing (such as the navel of Adam and Eve painted by Lucas Cranach or Jan Gossaert). Other works support this quest such as his devarnished antique paintings; Fabrice Samyn designs a very original pictural research by meticulously devarnishing polluted old oil paintings of which he is not the author. He intervenes on existing works and gives them a second life. The exhibition is divided in two rooms (one showing creation, the other deconstruction, even destruction) completed by a projection in the videobox.
Fabrice Samyn
Restoring the abyss
October 31, 2008 - December 6, 2008
Untitled (Sinaï I)
2007, inkjet photographic print, 40 x 60 cm