In her third solo show at Base-Alpha Gallery, Soetkin Verslype continues a quiet investigation of the immediate and the ordinary.
The works in nearby somewhere begin with small, everyday observations: a fold of fabric, the edge of a window, a cluster of objects on a table. From those humble beginnings the images take their own course. Shapes are simplified, elements are shifted, and familiar arrangements loosen their ties to literal representation. What remains are paintings and drawings that feel known but not fixed – likenesses that inhabit a slightly altered space.
This presentation brings together gouaches on paper and a new series of drawings. Across media, Verslype’s practice is attentive to surface, color and the rhythms that emerge when things are pared down. Details persist as traces rather than proofs: a suggestion of a room, the echo of a gesture, the memory of a view. The works neither fully deny the real nor insist on total realism; they keep the viewer between recognition and doubt.
nearby somewhere takes its title literally – the starting points are often objects and scenes that are familiar and everyday – and also as a description of the works’ mode of being. These are images that are “nearby” in feeling, yet they belong to a slightly different dimension, a private map where composition and colour decide what stays and what falls away. It offers a quiet, concentrated moment to look closely at how small, recognizable things rearrange themselves into their own visual worlds.
