TATJANA PIETERS is pleased to invite you to Making Traces, the 3rd solo exhibition by Belgian artist Matthijs Kimpe.
The new works by Matthijs Kimpe build on the principle of translating visual information. The errors that such a translation introduces reveal the nature of the medium and form the field of inquiry around which he works. Just as in earlier work where digital images are represented in analogue form, he now turns to capturing spatial forms on the flat surface. Volumes, actions and configurations imprint themselves onto the canvas. Chance, negative form, movement and colour become the instruments of a spatial transcription. The interplay between what was there and what remains visible introduces a distance; a layer between action and image. Leaving Traces invites the viewer to search for what happened on the canvas, to read the visual artefacts as traces of an action that is no longer there.
Matthijs Kimpe’s fascination with modern image media, such as screens and digital prints is the starting point for his artistic practice. He uses synthetic and optical materials in combination with paint and other textures. Screens and printers are manipulated and deconstructed to become a distinctive object and display a unique image, as opposed to their former function of reproducing. Kimpe’s choice of materials adds an extra dimension to the artwork and creates a stimulating visual language where the position of the viewer determines the final appearance and result of the work. His research navigates between the traditional static image of painting and the fast-paced imagination we experience today.
Matthijs Kimpe (BE, 1987) lives and works in Bruges (BE). He studied painting at the Sint-Lucas Academy in Ghent (BE). Kimpe previously had exhibitions at Schouwburg Noord, Antwerp (BE), CAS, Ostend (BE), SMAK (BE), In De Ruimte, Ghent (BE), Kunstkabinet, Ghent (BE), Villa de Olmen, Aalst (BE), het Entrepot, Bruges (BE), Aksent, Ghent (BE), Second Room, Antwerp (BE) and Cultureel Centrum Knokke (BE).
