Bendt Eyckermans

Biography

°1994, Antwerp, BE
Lives and works in Antwerp
Graduated in painting from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in 2016.

The narrative ambiguity of Eyckermans' paintings is contrasted by their quotidian nature and straightforward motifs, mostly depicting everyday scenes from the painter's own life. All of his characters are friends, who he frequently asks to pose in a certain stance, alone or with others.

Eyckermans has exhibited in M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Art Festival Watou, S.M.A.K. Ghent, MUDEL Deinze and has been collected by M HKA Antwerp and Vlaamse Gemeenschap.

Bendt Eyckermans is represented by Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Carlos/Ishikawa (London), and Andrew Kreps Gallery (New York).

eyckermansbendt.com

°1994, Antwerp, BE
Lives and works in Antwerp
Graduated in painting from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in 2016.

The narrative ambiguity of Eyckermans' paintings is contrasted by their quotidian nature and straightforward motifs, mostly depicting everyday scenes from the painter's own life. All of his characters are friends, who he frequently asks to pose in a certain stance, alone or with others.

Eyckermans has exhibited in M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Art Festival Watou, S.M.A.K. Ghent, MUDEL Deinze and has been collected by M HKA Antwerp and Vlaamse Gemeenschap.

Bendt Eyckermans is represented by Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Carlos/Ishikawa (London), and Andrew Kreps Gallery (New York).

eyckermansbendt.com

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023

'Beeldmaker', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerpen, BE
'Love Fulfilled', Gallery Carlos / Ishikawa, London, UK

2022

TANK, Shanghai, CN
'An Introcosm', Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, USA

2019

'Blue shadow', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE
'Yellow leaves', Gallery Carlos / Ishikawa, London, UK

2018

'A Stranger's Hand', De Vereniging, Vrienden v/h S.M.A.K., Ghent, BE
Kusseneers Gallery, Brussels, BE

2017

'The clouds have gathered', Kusseneers Gallery, Brussels, BE

Selected Exhibitions

2024

'Don't think twice, it's all right', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE

2022

'Art Antwerp 2022', Group show, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE

2021

Kunstenfestival Watou, Poperinge, BE
MA Festival, Brugge, BE
'Fifteen Painters', Andrews Kreps Gallery, New York, USA
'Lipstick and Gas Masks', MHKA, Antwerp, BE

2020

'L'heure bleue', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde & PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, BE
A presentation of new works by Bendt Eyckermans and Stuart Middleton, Gallery Carlos / Ishikawa London, UK

2018

‘Grote prijs Ernest Albertprijs’, CC Mechelen, Mechelen, BE

2017

‘Flowers’, PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, BE

2016

'Intimi', Kusseneers Gallery, Brussels, BE
'Capital M', Park Spoor Noord, Antwerp, BE
'Beuling', Antwerp Tower, Antwerp, BE
'Het Zwarte Gat' ( The Black Hole), Hof ter Biest, Ekeren, BE
'à L’état Sauvage', Troncaise, FR

2015

'720 Hours', Handelsbeurs, Antwerp, BE

2014

'A Belgian Politician', Marion de Canniere Gallery, Antwerp, BE
'Door het oog van de herinnering' (Through the eye of the memory), Galerie van Campen en Rochtus, Antwerp, BE

Bibliography

2020

A Dream of Thirst
Published by Posture Editions

Artworks

Bendt Eyckermans
De ornamentist, 2022
Oil on paper
31 x 25 cm
49 x 41,5 cm (framed)

Bendt Eyckermans
De grot (over kamers en portalen), 2022
Oil paint on linen
181 x 161 cm

Bendt Eyckermans
Het portaal (Fragmentatie & adoratie), 2022
Oil paint on linen
159 x 124 cm

Bendt Eyckermans
Het slot, 2021
Oil on linen
212 x 176 cm

Bendt Eyckermans
Les casseurs des pierres, 2022
Oil on paper
31 x 25 cm
49 x 41,5 cm (framed)

Bendt Eyckermans
A play of night, light and leather, 2020
Oil and acrylic inks on linen
186 x 154 x 2,5 cm

Bendt Eyckermans
De bijstaander, 2021
Oil on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Bendt Eyckermans
De transitie, 2020
Oil and acrylic inks on linen
189 x 159 x 2,5 cm

Bendt Eyckermans
Het feest, 2021
Oil paint on linen
189 x 151 cm

Bendt Eyckermans
De rozentuin, 2020
Oil paint and acrylic inks on canvas
187 x 143 cm

Bendt Eyckermans
De vervlechting, 2020
Oil paint and acrylic inks on canvas
64 x 52 cm

Bendt Eyckermans
De constructie, 2020
Oil and acrylic on canvas
129 x 106 x 2,5

Bendt Eyckermans
Het rode oor, 2020
Oil and acrylic on canvas
54 x 42 x 2,5 cm

Bendt Eyckermans
De moeder, 2022
Oil paint on linen
74 x 66 cm

News

Press

Bendt Eyckermans lives and works in the same studio in Antwerp where his father and grandfather made art before him. The historic Flemish capital, abundant in trade as well as art history, served not only as the production context for the twenty-five-year old painter, but also as an essential theme from the artist's everyday movement throughout the city streets, rendered in a dramatized manner that evokes dream or fantasy.

Eyckermans studied painting in Antwerp, where he received what he himself calls a "classical" education, with an emphasis on form, technique and color. But while his teachers tried to guide him towards the colorful abstraction of Walter Swennen and Tal. R, he discovered possibilities and freedom in figuration. He soon became obsessed with the Belgian history of painting, particularly the early 20th-century Latem school, and the work of Constant Permeke. The clunky, adumbrate motifs of the Flemish expressionist is evoked clearly in works such as 'A Whisper' and 'But my soul floats' (both 2018), where human figures are caught in awkward bodily gestures dramatized by strong shadows. "I want my work to be influenced by the Belgian cultural heritage and to be as Belgian as possible", he explains, suggesting an almost art historical query at work in his paintings. 'A lover's sight (2018)', where an arrangement of modernist sculptures are rendered with romantic animism, underlines this directly, as historical artifacts become alive and imbued with a sense of contemporary spirit. Painting on roughly woven canvas, allowing thin darks and thick lights, he produces an almost bas-relief materiality in his works, which only adds to their feel of being both in and out of present-day time.

The narrative ambiguity of Eyckermans' paintings is contrasted by their quotidian nature and straightforward motifs, mostly depicting everyday scenes from the painter's own life. All of his characters are friends, who he frequently asks to pose in a certain stance, alone or with others. " I use painting as a medium to process certain events in my life, and the works are always personal and intimistic," he explains. A reflection in a make-up mirror ('A wild strawberry', 2018); a body getting up ('A stranger's hand', 2018); picking up dropped keys ('He stumbles', 2018): no scene or motif is too minuscule or insignificant in Eyckermans' painterly world. "Sometimes certain gestures, movements or a look of a friend ca trigger me into a painting. I don't want to add any text to every painting to give it deep meaning, because most of the time the explanation is quite simple. "

Oddly cropped, or caught from a weird angle, Eyckermans' paintings can resemble zoomed-on phone snaps or stills from a film, furthered also by his dramatic use of light. As narrative gives way to composition, color and dramatized figurative form, Eyckermans' works border to the cinematic, which he welcomes as one origin of his work. "One of the reasons why I chose to practice painting is because I read a lot about all these famous movie directors , whom I admired that they also began with an interest for painting", he explains. "So I thought that painting would be a good step before starting education in making film. I quickly discovered that with painting I can have control over everything and I don't have to compromise with anyone else.

  • Jeppe Ulgelvig