Arpaïs Du Bois
Belgium
10 Works exhibited on Kooness
Represented by
Works by Arpaïs Du Bois
The work of drawer-painter Arpaïs Du Bois (Belgium, 1973) is strongly layered and analytic to counter the congested reality of the surrounding world. Her drawn journal-like compulsively filled books show us syntheses of images where any pretension of showing truth is excluded. Since there is no such thing as truth, as reality, everything gravitates around the perception of it.
This is what she catches on paper, what she transforms through the adventure of the line, the playing and banging of colours. These drawing books, consisting of refined forms and scattered phrases, carefully positioned on sometimes empty grounds or sometimes painterly surfaces, have designated her public output, generally providing the content for her exhibitions in the form of pages torn from the notebooks arranged in novel constellations. These constellations have a high level of poetic strength as well as a striking fragility. Along these assembled small drawings, she explores mid-scale and large-scale drawings/paintings on paper. She formulates her (pre)occupation as a fight against forgetting, against oblivion. Her developed system of noting down what many overlook, of commenting so-called trivialities, by bending the bow between image and the written word has made her a fierce observer and commentator of the small systems in which we live, as well as the big wide world in which we attempt to make our small systems work.
Arpaïs Du Bois’ sharp annotations are about slowing down the pace of life, taking time to ask the questions that should be asked. There is a specific ‘political’ dimension to her work, what she produces is nothing more nor less than a claim, for words opposed to rationalism of our time, for thoughts which by their false authority reaffirm the properly human dimension of our lives.
Drawing is to her the continuation of thinking. She is a drawer/thinker, a thinker/writer, a writer/ drawer. She is a materialiser. Her work is neither to be categorised in the anecdotal, illustrative, narrative current in contemporary drawing nor in the abstract, minimalist one. Her very own position is cogent. Even though all of her works are links of one long chain, each of them can be read and seen as an autonomous allegation.
Education
1994 -1998 Masters degree in Fine Arts, Sint-Lucas Institute (Antwerp, Be) 1993 Graphic design, Royal Academy of Fine arts (Antwerp, Be) 1991-1993 Political sciences, RUG (Ghent, Be)
Selected Solo Exhibitions Upcoming 2020: Residency at Frans Masereel Centrum (Kasterlee, Be)
2019 VISITE, Rossicontemporary (Brussels, Be) SUITE, Artcurial (Brussels, Be)
2018 Inconfortablement au salon, Gallery FIFTY ONE (Antwerp, Be) Trébucheurs - Piétineurs, De Garage (Mechelen, Be)
2017 Ma belle saison chez Vincent, Vincent Van GoghHuis (Zundert, NL)
2016 FAIRE PARTIE DES GENS QUI CHANTENT ou ne pas s’amuser des bizarreries de la vie, Gallery FIFTY ONE (Antwerp, Be) Trouver un moyen d’habiter le monde, Museum Dr. Guislain (Ghent, Be)
2015 Marion Devillers, ARPAÏS DU BOIS et leurs nuages, M.A. chez Christian Aubert (Paris, Fr)
2014 WHAT HAPPENS TO MATTER, duo with Paul Gees, EVA STEYNEN.DEVIATION(S) (Antwerp, Be) PAR LES BRETELLES, Gallery FIFTY ONE (Antwerp, Be)
2013 Au manège défoncé, PAK (Gistel, Be) Noyade sèche, Galerie van der Mieden (Brussels, Be) Trois cent quatre-vingt-onze, deux mille sept cent quarante huit, Galerie van der Mieden (Antwerp, Be)
2012 Where they met – and further, semina rerum (Zürich, CH)
Face au(x deux) mur(s), CCHa (Hasselt, Be) Where they met, duo with Yamamoto Masao, Fifty One Fine Art Photography (Antwerp, Be)
2011 Trois cent quatre-vingt-onze, deux mille sept cent quarante huit, Galerie van der Mieden (Antwerp, Be)
2010 Du corps au monde, Psychotherapie en kunst, ElimArt (Kapellen, Be) ARPAÏS DU BOIS & Denis Verkeyn, Centre Culturel de Marchin (Marchin, Be) Refuge, Moments Artistiques (Paris, Fr)
2008 Le sauvetage de la grande béquille, Galerie van der Mieden (Antwerp, Be)
2006 Après le noir, un tout autre noir, Atelier Antwerpen (Antwerp, Be) Petites graines de tous les jours, Vernon Gallery (Prague, CZ)
2005 Curating the library, deSingel (Antwerp, Be) Des illusions virgule, Bourla (Antwerp, Be)
2004 Au bout d’une saison, Atelier Antwerpen (Antwerp, Be) HISTOIRE, Espace Gainville (Aulnay-sous-Bois, Fr)
2003 Sans titre, Ateliers du Triangle d’Art (Ivry-sur-Seine, Fr) Les répendus et l’épinglée, Moments Artistiques (Paris, Fr) Mon rêve avait une jambe de bois, Galerij De Ziener (Asse, Be)
2001 Bundel lichamen, MuHKA (Antwerp, Be)
Selected Group Exhibitions Upcoming 2020: Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme, Art Autun - biennal of contemporary art (Autun, Fr) Gekende Woorden, Academie Tielt (Tielt, BE)
2019 Retrouvailles, duo-show with Paul Gees, Geukens & De Vil (Knokke, Be) Le Quotidien, valerie_traan, (Antwerp, Be) EKPHRASIS: Writing in Art, Boghossian Foundation, Villa Empain (Ixelles, Be) A Provisional Legacy. The Apocryphal Cabinet of the Adornes, Adornes (Bruges, Be) QUATOR, Ruimte P60 Assen (Assen, NL) Woordkunst, Walden Art Stories (Antwerp, Be)
2018 Prikkels. Tussen passie en pijn, Museum Dr. Guislain (Ghent, Be) L’Atlas des Nuages, Fondation François Schneider (Wattwiller, Fr) On longing and consolation, Art Festival Watou (Watou, Be) 2017-2018 ECCE HOMO curated by Marion de Cannière, Marie-Paule De Vil and Yasmine Geukens, several locations (Antwerp, Be) XL - SIZE MATTERS, Gallery FIFTY ONE (Antwerp, Be)
2017 ABSTRACTED, Aeroplastics (Brussels, Be) (It) works on Paper II, Kristof De Clercq Gallery (Ghent, Be) SEVENTEEN by FIFTY ONE, Gallery FIFTY ONE (Antwerp, Be) Identities, Galerie EL (Welle, Be) J’avais 15 ans, Centre Culturel de Marchin (Marchin, Be)
2016 Grote Prijs Ernest Albert, De Garage (Mechelen, Be) DRAWING FRONT, Drawing Centre Diepenheim (Diepenheim, NL) Die van Aalst. Hedendaagse kunst uit privé-verzameling curated by Jan De Nys (Gent, Wieze, Dendermonde, Aalst, Welle, Be) The Central Periphery (Antwerp Art Weekend), DE STUDIO (Antwerp, Be)
2015 (RE)VIEW, groupshow at CCHA (Hasselt, Be) The Pistil’s Waltz, Gallery FIFTY ONE (Antwerp, Be)
2014 La fureur de vivre, LA BRASSSERIE (Foncquevillers, Fr) ALMANACH, curated by Lorand Hegyi, Galerie Heike Curtze (Wien, A) ALMANACH, curated by Lorand Hegyi Galleria Alessandro Bagnai (Firenze, It)
Oorlog en Trauma, Museum Dr.Guislain (Ghent, Be)
2013 Crossing lines again, Workplace (Antwerp, Be) Quinta Essentia, semina rerum (Zürich, CH) Gratis toegang, St Martinuspastorij (Westmalle, Be)
2012 Tina.B, the Golem project, Klementinum (Prague, CZ) tchip tchip, Centre culturel de Marchin (Marchin, Be) RAAK (Schunck, NL) Mu.ZEE (Ostend, Be)
2011 RAAK, educational exhibition by RASA, S.M.A.K. (Ghent, Be) Wallpiece 14, Sint Lucas passage Antwerp (Antwerp, Be)
2010 (When will they finally see) the POWER of DRAWING (62 Belgian contemporary artists), Geukens en De Vil (Antwerp, Be) Wallpiece 10, Sint Lucas passage (Antwerp, Be)
2009 Drawing Actions, De Halle (Geel, Be)
2007 Heilige huisjes, de Winkelhaak (Antwerp, Be) Papier, Galerie van der Mieden (Antwerp, Be)
2006 Déjà, Espace Commines (Paris, Fr)
2004 Tekeningen, Galerij Jan Colle (Ghent, Be)
Fairs
2019 Art Brussels @ Gallery FIFTY ONE 2018 Art Brussels @ Gallery FIFTY ONE 2017 Art Brussels @ Gallery FIFTY ONE and Galerie 8 + 4 2017 Art Paris @ Galerie 8 + 4 2015 Art Brussels @ Gallery FIFTY ONE 2014 Art Brussels @ Gallery FIFTY ONE 2013 Art Brussels @ Galerie van der Mieden and Fifty One Fine Art Photography 2011 Drawing Now, le salon du dessin contemporain (Paris, Fr) @ Galerie Van der Mieden 2010 Salon du Dessin Contemporain Carrousel du Louvre (Paris, Fr) 2010 Arco Madrid 2009 Art Brussels 2008 Art Amsterdam 2007 Art Brussels
Publications 2018 Si Non Là, Gallery FIFTY ONE Publishing
ISBN 9789081772570 2017 Ma belle saison chez Vincent, Gallery FIFTY ONE Publishing
ISBN 9789081772563 2016 Tout droit vers la fin en sifflotant, Hannibal Publishing
ISBN 9789492081568 2013 Petit livre qui ne tient pas debout, Lannoo
ISBN 9789401411028 2011 Where We Met, with Yamamoto Masao, Lannoo
ISBN 9789020957884 2005 Des illusions virgule, TOOHCSMI 2004 Histoire, IMSCHOOT 2001 Bundel Lichamen, TOOHCSMI
Catalogues 2017 ECCE HOMO, Hannibal Publishing 2015 What happens to matter, Eva Steynen.Deviations 2013 Kunst op de Campus, University Press Antwerp
ISBN 9789057183324 2013 ik wordt, Johan De Wilde, MER Paper Kunsthalle
ISBN 9789491775048 2013 War and Trauma, Hannibal Publishing
ISBN 9789491376634
2010 When will they finally see the power of drawing, Geukens en De Vil 2010 Designers against Aids, the first decade, Ludion
ISBN 9789055448418 2009 Drawing Actions, Geel 2007 Heilige Huisjes, Winkelhaak