Karen Vermeren

City in Reverse

14.07.2018 - 26.08.2018

City in Reverse
Paintings on Windows & Plastics

In the earth's crust, tectonic plates shift only a few centimeters per year, and thereby move in two ways: they push and they pull. This phenomenon creates mountains, volcanoes, cliffs and valleys - all held together by boundlessly stacked layers of stone. Society moves and changes in very similar ways. Karen Vermeren’s continuous, ever-changing artistic investigation reflects the equally ceaseless stream of physical changes in the many landscapes she explores.

The Rivoli concrete colonnade from the seventies is in full transformation. Recent renovations and new galleries promise a new landscape. Karen Vermeren is developing in-situ window paintings in dialogue with this process for Zwart Huis Brussels.

Mining holes are the reverse images of cityscapes. A vertical landscape. It forms the substratum of high-rise buildings, the grit of highways. Often we are unconscious of the city’s origins and rural birthplaces. Limestone’s are transformed into cement and concrete in the city. They transfer the fences of the geological landscape and pass constructions, ladders and webs to find new grids to nestle.

Karen Vermeren (°1982, Ghent) obtained her Master’s of Art (Painting) degree at LUCA School of Arts, Ghent (2005), followed by a PhD in Arts in St. Lucas School of Arts & University Antwerp (2018), and several residences. Regularly she shows her work in Belgium and abroad (a.o. MAS Antwerp, Beursschouwburg Brussels, Lieux-communs Namur, Studio PRÁM Prague, European Triennial Mons, International Glass Prize, etc.).