Tom Volkaert
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Tom Volkaert -
Tom Volkaert’s sculptural work is a testimony to the materiality of memory as much as it is an ongoing tribute to the spiritual and shamanic force of art. Born in Antwerp in 1989, Volkaert’s sculptural work is a carefully balanced combination of refined artistic craftsmanship and the strategic use of unpredictability that comes into play when working with enameled ceramics, epoxy, or oxidized metal. Many of his works consist of circles on legs, which the artist likes to call steering-wheels. These works are like totems: symbolic and organic artifacts that make present the otherworldly alien life in the cosmos and that put us in touch with something radically different from us. On the edges and inside these circles, contorted arachnoid limbs, intestines, and sickly satanic tongues are carefully arranged and held in suspended animation. It is as if these circles are portals to another cosmic dimension and something wholly other than human life is trying to get through, a lumpy otherworldly and alienated organic gesturing at us in a way that feels both familiar and estranging.
But Volkaert’s so-called steering wheels are also a totem for his own life and memories, a way of navigating and coming to terms with his own life. For Volkaert, colors embody memory. Personal memories first of all. And thus, the lived memory of the cinereous cigarette stains on the caput morteem colored carpet in his parent’s living room is reenacted and relived through the use of these colors in his work. But universal memories too. The usage of umbilical greyish pink and placenta-colored red appeal to a birthing process all of us have gone through; engaging with these colors, Volkaert’s sculptures establish a connection to the matrixial mother in which all creativity is situated, making the viewer receptive to the most intimate and estranging experience of being alive.
Conjuring up these contradictory feelings and holding them together is, ultimately, at the core of Volkaert’s artistic practice. Holding together contradictory sensations, his art opens a space where feelings of joy, surprise, wonder, and disgust are enclosed in the same ceramic totem or metal cut-out or epoxy statues.
Text : Bram Leven
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Born in Antwerp, Belgium, °1989
Lives and works in Antwerp
Solo exhibitions
2023 ‘A Romantic Weekend At Freeman Ranch’, Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
2021 ‘As slow as possible’, Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
2020 ‘Souvenirs From Belgium’, Catbox Contemporary, Ridgewood NY, (US)
2019 ‘XXX’, Nevven Gallery, Gothenburg, (SE)
2018 ‘Sometimes you dance alone, sometimes you do a dance with two’, Rod Barton, London, (UK)
‘AGGIORNAMENTO’, Deborah Bowmann, Brussels, (BE)
‘Almost good enough’, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, (US)
2017 ‘Dream art fair basel’, online solo presentation curated by Rod Barton.
‘Never the same face thrice’, Base-Alpha Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
‘Cart wheels & accessories’, Ciap Hasselt, (BE)
2015 ‘Very very very very very very very good times’, Hole Of The Fox, Antwerp, (BE)
Group exhibitions
2024 ‘Fair enough’, Espace Triphase, Brussels, (BE)
‘To each his own’, Uppercurt Space, Antwerp (BE)
‘Off The wall’, Stellar, Antwerp, (BE)
2023 ‘Neighbours / Stories Unfold”, Zemst, (BE)
‘At This Height, But Not Yet In Its Fullness’, Red Herring Space, Antwerp, (BE)
2022 ‘Hardcore Impotence, The Dystfunction Of The Status Quo’, Antwerp, (BE)
2021 ‘This must be the place’, Villa Schoeningen, Potsdam, (DE)
‘Mixed pickles 9’, Ruttkowski 68, Munich, (DE)
‘Mystic may’, The Community, Paris, (FR) ‘SUPERSTUDIO’, OHM, Antwerp, (BE)
2020 ‘Reservoir’, 019, Ghent, (BE)
‘Mental’ Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
2019 ‘Cowboys & indians’, Kunstpodium T, Tilburg, (NL)
‘The House Of Art And Beauty’, OHM, Antwerp, (BE)
‘I Know You’re Out There’, CuratedbyLolita, Paris, (FR)
‘Subaked Thirst With Love’ ENA Viewing Space, Budapest, duo show with Zsofia Keresztes, (HU)
‘In Real Life’ Everyday Gallery YYY, Antwerp, (BE)
‘De Biennale Van België’ Floralienhal, Ghent, (BE)
2018 Sans Titre 2016, Paris, (FR)
‘Always in the kitchen’ Gouvernement, Ghent, (BE)
‘The Last Rave’ Diesel Project Space, Liege,(BE)
Castor Projects, London, (UK)
‘Make Your Mark’ Plus One Gallery, Antwerp,(BE)
‘Tasty Breakfast’, NH Penthouse Residency, Brussels, (BE)
‘Podium Enterprises’, Oslo, (NO)
‘Art Brussels’, Base Alpha Gallery, Brussels, (BE)
‘Neighbours’, Ghent, (BE)
Art Rotterdam, Rod Barton, Rotterdam, (NL)
Stephanie Kelly, Dresden, (DE)
2017 ‘ABC Lounge Klub’, ABC Klubhuis, Antwerp (BE)
‘Lost & Found’, Rod Barton, London, (UK)
‘10 Years Base-Alpha Gallery // Part1: Artists Of The Gallery’, Base-Alpha Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
‘Case Of Doubt’, Pina, Vienna, (AT) ‘Pulsar #1’, Pulsar, Antwerp, (BE)
Art Brussels, Base Alpha Gallery, Brussels, (BE)
Indepent, Represented by Art Viewer, Brussels, (BE)
‘#infiniteflowersplusone’, PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
‘Form Canibalism’, The Stable, Waregem, (BE)
‘Serpent Things Of Light’, Yabi, Madrid, (ES)
Art Rotterdam, Base Alpha Gallery, Rotterdam, (NL) 2016
2016 ‘Cant Fix It, Fuck It’, Pulsar, Antwerp, (BE)
‘5 At Hole Of The Fox’, Antwerp, (BE)
‘Reflector (Nate Lights)’, PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
‘For Granted, Hole Of The Fox’, Antwerp, (BE)
‘Fascinator’, 252 Cc Ekeren, (BE)
‘The Super Narrative’, In De Ruimte, (BE)
‘True Believer’, The Pony Club Project Space, (BE)
‘Art In The Park’, Beersel, (BE)
‘For Granted’, Hole Of The Fox, Antwerp, (BE)
‘Ten Dans’, Lieven Segers Nodigt Uit, Cc Maasmechelen, (BE)
‘Paradise Lost’, Base- Alpha Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
2015 ‘T.O.O.N.’, Groepsproject Het Bos, Antwerp, (BE)
2014 ‘I Sang And Thought I Sang Very Well’, with Federico Acal, Hole Of The Fox, Antwerp, (BE)
‘The Poster Show’, with Federico Acal, Extra City Vitrine , Antwerp, (BE) 2013
‘Fortification With Mette Sinke’, Le Garage L. Forcalquier, (F)
‘Anvers Marseille’, with Bram Van Meervelde, Salon 2060 Antwerp, (BE)
‘Freak_Doggie, Sizzler_007, Paddingtom13, Passoa_Butterfly’, Hole Of The Fox, Antwerp, (BE)
