BAM

bio

At first sight Jan Kempenaers' landscape photographs appear to the straight-forwardly photographic, but the more one looks, the more they reveal themselves as conceptual rather than optical or retinal pieces. They are powerfully mute images of semi urban-places. His photographs are much more than vernacular, pictorial ideograms. They speak powerfully to the post industrial condition, they speak of the technologised human subject in whatever geographical context.

cv

Solo Exhibitions (selection)

2006

'Different Realities?', Crown Gallery, Brussel (Belgium)

2004

'Jan Kempenaers', Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

2002

'Jan Kempenaers, The Japanese Photographs', Zwart Huis, Knokke (Belgium)

2001

'Jan Kempenaers, MUT(IL)ATIES', Museum of Photography, Antwerp (Belgium)
'Jan Kempenaers', Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (Belgium)

Group Exhibition (selection)

2006

'KunstRai', Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
'Art Brussels', Brussels (Belgium)
'Collectiepresentatie XIV', Muhka, Antwerp (Belgium)
'Recollecting Landscapes', Smak, Ghent (Belgium)

2005

'City in Motion', Taktoren, Kortrijk (Belgium)
'Lineaert', Museum fwd artist fwd gallery, Ghent (Belgium)
'Fiac', Paris (France)
'Information / Transformation', Extra City, Antwerp (Belgium)
'Het Dorp is de Wereld', Museum Roger Raveel, Machelen – Zulte (Belgium)
'Monopolis', Witte de With, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
'Collectiepresentatie XII', Muhka, Antwerp (Belgium)
'Chemins', Nadja Vilenne Gallery, Luik (Belgium)
'Belgische Fotografen 1840 – 2005', Museum voor Fotografie, Antwerp (Belgium)
'L'oeil urbain', Maison de la Culture de la Province de Namur, Namen (Belgium)
'Jan Kempenaers & Lucy Wood', Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
'Jan Kempenaers & Anne Daems', Nadja Vilenne Gallery, Luik (Belgium)

2004

'Once upon a time... Een blik op kunst in België in de jaren '90', Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp (Belgium)
'Travelling without Moving', W139, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

2003

'Horror Vacui', Fotografie van de lege stad, Witte Zaal, Ghent (Belgium)
'European Eyes on Japan 4', Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, Hiroshima (Japan)
Wiels!, Vorst, Brussels (Belgium)
'Young International Art', Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

2002

'De collectie - een keuze', Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp (Belgium)
'Mouvance', Biennale de la Photographie et de la Ville Urbi et Orbi, Sedan (France)
'The Lost Past', Ieper (Belgium)
'European eyes on Japan', Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama (Japan)
'Lost Location', Railway Station Bruges, Bruges (Belgium)
'Being all things to all people', Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag (The Netherlands)

2001

'(They say this is the) place', Koningin Fabiolazaal, Antwerp (Belgium)
Vierde Werner Mantz Prijs voor Fotografie, Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Maastricht (The Netherlands)

Bibliography (selection)

A prior Magazine #10_2004, vzw Mark: 196 - 205, 2005
A+, april - mei 2002, nr. 175, pg.66.
Archis #4 2004, Artimo, pg. 8-9, pg. 10 - 11.
Archis, #1 2003, pg. 62, 65, 66-67, 68-69, 70-71, 82-83, 87.
Belgische Fotografen 1840 - 2005, Museum voor Fotografie, Antwerpen / Ludion: cover, 162- 163, 2005
De lichte kamer, De verborgen fotografie, Garant: 164, 2005
Documentary Photography. The Exemple of Jan Kempenaers, in: Ons Erfdeel, vol. 42, nr.3, pp. 47-51
Jan Baetens: History of Photography, spring 2001. Colour in Contemporary Belgian
Missies Ik weet wat goed voor u is, Vlaams Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond: 50 - 51, 2005
OASE # 63 2004, NAI Uitgevers, pg. 14 t.e.m. pg. 29
post ex sub dis, Ghent Urban Studies, Gent, 2002, pg. 47, 277, 278-79
Recollecting Landscapes. Het fotografisch geheugen en transformatie 1904-1980-2004, Gent: A&S/Books, 2006
Report of an Ongoing Journney, W139, Amsterdam: 153, 2006
Roadmap to an Artscene, IBK, Gent, 2005