In his characteristically grey, monochrome palette, Hans Op de Beeck‘s present solo exhibition Whispered Tales at Templon fashions enigmatic narratives from lifelike silhouettes. The immersive, sprawling presentation brings collectively a mixture of new and earlier work, inviting viewers into an atmospheric, introspective house.
Folks and dioramas seem frozen in time in Op de Beeck’s sculptures, as if plucked from a reminiscence or dream. “Zhai-Lia (Angel),” for instance, portrays a younger woman sporting fairy wings and a holding a wand, seated pensively in entrance of a swathe of bamboo. In “Zhai-Lia (mother’s shoes),” she wears a tutu and outsized excessive heels.
The artist typically depicts kids who work together with the grownup world but stay harmless to considerations past their very own, channeling the engrossing otherworldliness of youthful creativeness and play. The invariable flatness of the grey palette makes the figures seem faraway from actuality, whereas lending a common really feel to their presence.
Time additionally finds buy in works like “Danse Macabre,” during which a miniature carousel is raised to eye degree on a pole and a skeleton stands amid celestial objects in Victorian-era clothes. Together with a sculpture titled “Vanitas Table” during which a basic nonetheless life setting incorporates a human cranium, Op de Beeck faucets into the custom of memento mori, the reminder that life inevitably ends.
“The way the artist plays with the perception of scale and atmosphere sparks a disconnect, a feeling of strangeness when confronted with scenes lifted out of the ordinary,” says a gallery assertion. “Each work offers us the seed of yet another possible story … [and] transforms the prosaic into an almost magical experience where simplicity gives birth to the unexpected.”
Whispered Tales continues by way of December 21 in New York. Discover extra on the artist’s web site and Instagram.
