Eliza Pepermans The Artist' studio
Today, when you step into Schönfeld Gallery, you actually enter the studio of Eliza Pepermans. Set up as her studio, the exhibition offers you a peek into the artist's creative process while at the same time showcasing work where, for the first time, Eliza depicts the mythical space of the studio.
Throughout art history, images of artist studios have appeared frequently, often serving as representations of the creative process and offering us a glimpse into the artist's world. Rendered in grand compositions, they sometimes elevate the role and position of the artist as well. With examples like Johannes Vermeer, Claude Monet, Diego Velázquez, and Gustave Courbet, Eliza aligns herself with a rich painting tradition. These are large shoes to fill, but she does so with flair and careful consideration, as the still lifes from the studio are the result of thorough research and a long process of sketching and making preliminary studies. Like her illustrious predecessor Paul Cézanne, Eliza views the still life as a means to reconsider spatial organization and geometric construction. In search of a harmonious composition, various objects are arranged in a deliberate manner. Like Cézanne, Eliza also abandons the realistic depiction of perspective and form, introducing a playful element into her work.
Whereas she previously saw the still life as the ideal playground to master the technical aspects of painting (Édouard Manet rightly called the still life “the touchstone of painting”), the current exhibition reveals a further evolved body of work by a masterful painter. Previously rather formally driven, Eliza's work and motifs now show confidence in form and stylization, with narrative taking center stage.
Metaphorical motifs take the lead in a spectacle staged in the studio. Wilted flowers, skulls, guitars, overripe fruit, playing cards, clocks, and extinguished candles highlight the fleeting and transient nature of human existence, reminding us of the vanity of worldly pleasures and possessions. Typical vanitas motifs are supplemented by objects from the studio, such as brushes, busts, painter’s palettes, canvases, books, as well as items from Eliza's daily family life with her partner: a basketball, a spider. Thus, the outside world enters the studio. However, it carries an ominous tone. Nocturnal animals, the moon, and a black dove point to a turbulent world that bursts the safe cocoon like a soap bubble. Gradually, objects in the studio begin to topple. A vase turns black, foreshadowing dark times and an unknown future. Abstract, insignificant shapes take on a threatening quality, like ever-expanding dark spots. For the first time, human presence appears in Eliza's work, in the form of a progressing shadow. Is it the shadow of the artist, her muse, or the viewer as an intruder?
In The Artist’s Studio, Eliza Pepermans takes you on a journey through sketches, color studies, charcoal drawings, and oil paintings on canvas. With this exhibition, the artist invites you to join in on her exploration of color, texture, spatial organization, composition, and the effect of motifs. The result is a unique approach to the still life, staged in the studio.
Roxane Baeyens
- Location
- Brussels
- Date
- Now open: —
- EXCEPTIONALLY CLOSED:
- 21/11 - 24/11
- Book Signing session:
- 10/11/2024
- Open Monday:
- 11/11/2024
- Open Sunday:
- 01/12/2024
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- :
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Selected Images
Selected Images
“‘Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic.’”
Eliza Pepermans Marbled gaze, 2024
Inquire60,2 x 71,3 cm
Framed
Eliza Pepermans Flowering shadow, 2024
76,5 x 78,2 cm
Framed