BAM

bio cv residencies creations documentation biblio

bio

The oeuvre of Hans Op de Beeck gathers a variety of sculptures, of installation and video work,
photography, animation film, drawings, paintings and short stories. His aesthetics is deliberately
ambiguous and non-univocal: minimalist creations combine with their blown-up opposites, always aiming to articulate the content of the work as precise as possible.

Thematically, the work of Hans Op de Beeck is concerned with the difficult relationship man has with time and space and with his fellow man. His images show non-existent yet identifiable places, moments and characters that appear to be taken from everyday life and capture the tragicomic absurdity of postmodern existence. Key to his oeuvre are the abstraction of time, the fading of distance and the disembodiment of the individual – results of globalisation. Also under discussion are the changes brought to our living environment by developments in media, automation and technology.

Hans Op de Beeck has been referring to his work with the name 'proposals': he leaves it to the viewer to decide whether to take the work, – which is irrefutably fictional, constructed and staged – serious as some parallel reality or to immediately put it into perspective as no more than a visual construct. This relationship between reality and representation, between what we see and what we want to believe, between what is and what we create for ourselves in order to make it easier to deal with our own insignificance and lack of identity, is of great importance. The output is a series of slumbering, insidious, melancholy and astonishing images.

Solo Exhibitions (selection)

2011

'Hans Op de Beeck: Extensions', Museum Het Domein, Sittard (The Netherlands)
'Sea of Tranquillity', argos, Brussels (Belgium)
'Sea of Tranquility', CAB, Burgos (Spain)

2010

'Staging Silence ', Smithsonian�s Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC (USA)
'Sea of Tranquillity ', Le Grand Caf�, Saint-Nazaire (France)
'Silent Movie ', Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York (NY) (USA)

2009

'Staging Silence', Galleria Continua, Beijing (China)
'Location (6)', Art Unlimited, Basel (Switzerland)
'In Silent Conversation with Correggio ', Galleria Borghese, Rome (Italy)

2008

'Celebration', Galleria Continua, San Gimignano (Italy)
'Location (6)', Holland Festival, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
'Circumstances', Rogaland Museum of Fine Arts, Stavanger (Norway)

2007

'Extensions', M - Museum Leuven, Louvain (Belgium)
'Extensions', Centraal Museum, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
'Merry-go-round (2)', Art Unlimited, Basel (Switzerland)
'Extensions', Galleria Continua, San Gimignano (Italy)
'All together now...', Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

2006

Viafarini, Milan (Italy)
'Tables ... ', Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (Austria)
'Family (scenes and scenery)', Xavier Hufkens , Brussels (Belgium)
'Hans Op de Beeck', MuHKA, Antwerp (Belgium)

2005

'T-Mart', MuHKA, Antwerp (Belgium)
'In their minds…', Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York (NY) (USA)

2004

'Ondertussen.../Meanwhile...', gem, The Hague (The Netherlands)
'Location (5)', Art Unlimited, Art 35 Basel, Basel (Switzerland)
'Loss', Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris (France)
Ron Mandos Galerie, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)

2000

'Hans Op De Beeck and Koenraad Dedobbeleer', de Warande, Turnhout (Belgium)

cv

Group Exhibitions (selection)

2010

'Terre Vulnerabili', Hangar Bicocca, Milan (Italy)
'Aichi Triennale', Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi (Japan)

2009

'A story of the Image', Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; National Museum of Singapore (Singapore)
'Auto. Dream and Matter Laboral', Gijón – Dos de Mayo Art Center, Madrid (Spain)
'In-finitum', Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (Italy)

2008

'Wonder', Singapore Biennale, Singapore (Singapore)
'Variable Capital', Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool (Great Britain)
'Arts Towada (permanent installation of 'Location (5)')', Towada Art Center, Towada (Japan)
'No Place - like Home. Perspectives on Migration and Europe', argos, Brussels (Belgium)
'Wandering in Contemporary Video Art', Magazzini del Sale - Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (Italy)
'Car Culture', Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona (USA)

2007

'Dealing with Reality', Museum of Modern Art, Arnhem (The Netherlands)
'La città che sale - We try to build the future', ARCOS, Benevento - MACRO, Rome (Italy)
'Imagination Becomes Reality (# 6)', (Goetz Collection) ZKM, Karlsruhe (Germany)
'Our Magic Hour', ARARIO Gallery, Seoul (Corea)
'The Leading Thread', Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos (CAB), Burgos (Spain)

2006

'Art Video Lounge' (Curatorial Programme), Art Basel Miami Beach 2006, Miami (USA)
'Analog Animation 2006', The Drawing Center, New York (USA)
'Fresh! Contemporary Takes on Nature and Allegory', Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington (USA)
'6th Shanghai Biennale', Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai (China)
'Version Animé-Biennale des nouveaux médias', Centre pour l'image contemporaine, Genève (Switzerland)

2005

'The MARTa Herford Collection, MARTa, Herford (Germany)
'Night Sites', Kuntverein Hannover, Hannover (Germany)
'Visionary Belgium', BOZAR - Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (Belgium)
'Attentes', Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'Art Contemporain, Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
'New Accents in Contemporary Dutch and Flemish Art', Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf (Germany)

2004

'Lautloses Irren - Ways of worldmaking to…', Postbahnhof Am Ostbahnhof, Berlin (Germany)
'All that useless beauty', Whitechapel, Project Space, London (United Kingdom)
'100% Acid Free Group Show', White Columns, New York (Verenigde Staten)

2003

'Rijksakademie', Victoria Miro Gallery, London (United Kingdom)
'Critique is not enough', Shedhalle, Zürich (Switzerland)
'City Mouse/Country Mouse', Space 101, Williamsburg, New York (USA)
'Breaking Away', PS1-MoMA, New York NY (USA)
'Silent Wandering...', Postbahnhof Am Ostbahnhof, Berlin (Germany)

2002

'Other than film', International Film Festival of Rotterdam, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
'BIG Torino 2002', International Biennial of Young Art - Big Social Game, Torino (Italy)
'Printemps de Septembre', Festival, Toulouse (France)

2001

'Still/ life', hARTware projekte, Dortmund (Germany)

2000

'Not I, Group show', The Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast (Northern Ireland)
'Anno Zero - Cittadellarte 2000', Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella (Italy)

biblio

S. O'REILLY, Profile : Hans Op de Beeck. Sally O'Reilly meets the Belgian artist on the road to nowhere, CONTEMPORARY #62, Summer 2004.
Z. GRAY, Hans Op de Beeck. Meanwhile, MODERN PAINTERS, Summer 2004.
M. HERBERT, Hans Op de Beeck, ART FORUM, April 2005.
E. VERDIER, Hans Op de Beeck. Le crépuscule des illusions, ART PRESS #315, September 2005.
S. O'REILLY, Sinnlose Worte. Das Werk von Hans Op de Beeck, FRAME, November/December 2005.
E. WITTOCX, Hans Op de Beeck in conversation with Eva Wittocx, E-FLUX / INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER IBK, 1 December 2005.
S. B. VOGEL, Critics' Picks: Hans Op de Beeck, ART FORUM, April 2006.
H. VAN GELDER & M. BLEYEN, Hans Op de Beeck. Interview in H. VAN GELDER (red.), Bruegel Revisited, Stichting Kunstboek, Oostkamp, 2006, pp. 58-63.
C. VUEGEN, Schoonheid is hoop, KUNSTBEELD, December 2006.