ANTWERP.- Tim Van Laere Gallery is presenting Let's Go!, a group exhibition presenting works by Bram Demunter, Jean Dubuffet, Kati Heck, Leiko Ikemura, Stanislava Kovalcikova, Friedrich Kunath, Jonathan Meese, Albert Oehlen, Tobias Pils, Tal R, Ben Sledsens, Ettore Spaletti, Dennis Tyfus, Rinus Van de Velde, Inès Van den Kieboom, Henk Visch, and Franz West.
While solo exhibitions allow you to fully enter the world of one artist and give you a glimpse of what the world looks like according to that artist, a group show offers different windows and pathways to various points of view and ways of seeing. It's for this reason group shows are a vital part of the gallery's program. By combining works from different artists in all kinds of media, the inner dialogue between the artist and his/her work is brought to a larger table, where its meaning gets challenged and debated by the surrounding works. It makes for an open dialogue where universal truths rise to the front and are brought to the surface of each one of the works presented in the exhibition space. The decision of the gallery to curate the show not only with contemporary artists but to also include modern artists, testifies to the determination the gallery has to pave new pathways to foster new dialogues and share these dialogues with the public. Choosing to curate group shows with cross-pollination in media, genres, and generations, can create new ways in art and expand the existing dialogue of the works which inspires new styles, and different ways of creating and rethinking our ways of seeing.
On the one hand, the title of the show, Let's Go!, reflects on the gallery's belief in art and its strength to overcome almost everything. It's a phrase that leaves no room for doubt and proclaims its strong faith in art to the public, inviting them to join the party. On the other hand, the phrase also refers to the process of the artist. Each one of these artists knows how to surrender to their work. They have allowed art to fully consume their life and take a vital part in their existence. They allow the work to speak for itself. Therefore the gallery chose to respect this inner attitude of the works and place them in dialogue as such. They don't need a thematic alibi to start up new conversations, they just need to be presented as intended by the artist to enter the public's consciousness.
