Manuel Geerinck

Work on paper is what Manuel Geerinck's (°1961) entire art practice revolves around. He is a well-known artist, little known in his native Belgium. Most attention has always been to his photographic work, which in 2012 snatched first prize at the Sony World Photography Awards in the 'conceptual' category. He then photographed cut-up drawings of him as if they were in motion. For 30 years, he has been making work on paper almost daily, but he does not often exhibit it. It has something of an 'écriture automatique' with shapes in black and white and sometimes a colour added, e.g. a signal red. Usually, his art is triggered by something from current events or his surroundings. He mixes techniques and also uses stamps. Lavering between graphics and painting, a universe of indeterminate forms grows, a kind of organism often. They float in the vacuum of the white sheet and seem to vibrate several times. Is it an armchair with a black explosion, a bang like in cartoon or advertising images? Sometimes, you think you recognise something, but most of the time, you don't, which doesn't prevent our imagination from kicking into action. More to the point, the viewer is given carte blanche because there are no titles.