In “For Sale: My Soul (And Some Ceramics)” on view at Art Rotterdam 2025, Tom Volkaert (Antwerp, 1989) takes the familiar themes and style of his work in a whole new direction, inspired by recent events in his personal life
Volkaert's work is recognizable by its uniquely contorted, organic style and deep, saturated colours. The so-called ‘steering wheels’ that the artist is known for, are a good example. These sculptures consist of round, open circles, often the size of a steering wheel, held upright by two short legs. Volkaert found inspiration in a self-portrait that he drew in a deliberately naive, childish style. A rudimentary head and two simple legs, drawn in an unsteady hand. The erratic, jaggy lines of the drawing became the starting point for the vibrant shapes that give his sculptures their distorted but lifelike air; spread throughout the exposition, these steering wheels are like totems, remnants of creatures from another world.
The playful approach to deeply existential themes that we find in the steering wheels is taken in a new directihttps://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/adeUMHG5Oxpq4on in Volkaerts latest work, on display at Art Rotterdam. Volkaert’s work embraces human vulnerability, and in his most recent sculptures the artist has found new ways to engage with this theme. The inspiration came from the vanitas genre, popular in Western art during the 16th and 17th century. Like the vanitas genre, Volkaert’s new work draws inspiration from everyday house hold objects like a cabinet, a table, or a chair; and like the vanitas genre, Volkaert positions contemporary symbols on these objects that can serve as allegorical reminders of our own frailty and finitude. But Volkaert uses deeply saturated colours and a cartoonish style for these objects: a huge medication capsule, a bright pink bleeding heart, a clock, and a bottle of alcohol with the xxx that we find in cartoons…
A central work in “For Sale: My Soul (And Some Ceramics)” features a large green snake with a capsule in its mouth. Its fangs are injecting poison in the capsule. Unlike most of the other works on display, Volkaert has chosen for a realistic image of a snake. In doing so, the artist hints at the ambivalent status of a poisonous snake in popular culture: inspiring both dread and awe, the snake mirrors the role of mediation and drugs in our society, which can be both harmful and life saving.
