Pieter Jennes

Biography

°1990, Mortsel, BE
Lives and works in Antwerp.
Graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in 2013 and from the University of Ghent in 2014.

Inspired by painting, cinema and his own neighbourhood, Pieter Jennes is the creator of a highly unique oeuvre. His very recognisable personal style draws on the work of Flemish painters from the 1920s, such as Jean Brusselmans and Gustave De Smet, but also Ensor, Otto Dix or Georg Grosz, African masks and folklore, the cinema of David Lynch and Werner Herzog.

In the past Jennes has exhibited in Bozar (Brussels), at the Warande (Turnhout), and at BE-PART (Kortrijk).

His work is in the collection of the Vlaamse Gemeenschap, M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, and the Belfius Collection.

Pieter Jennes is represented by Gallery Sofie Van de Velde and Nino Mier Gallery.

pieterjennes.com

°1990, Mortsel, BE
Lives and works in Antwerp.
Graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in 2013 and from the University of Ghent in 2014.

Inspired by painting, cinema and his own neighbourhood, Pieter Jennes is the creator of a highly unique oeuvre. His very recognisable personal style draws on the work of Flemish painters from the 1920s, such as Jean Brusselmans and Gustave De Smet, but also Ensor, Otto Dix or Georg Grosz, African masks and folklore, the cinema of David Lynch and Werner Herzog.

In the past Jennes has exhibited in Bozar (Brussels), at the Warande (Turnhout), and at BE-PART (Kortrijk).

His work is in the collection of the Vlaamse Gemeenschap, M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, and the Belfius Collection.

Pieter Jennes is represented by Gallery Sofie Van de Velde and Nino Mier Gallery.

pieterjennes.com

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023

'Glad there is you', Frieze Seoul, Solo booth, Vacancy Gallery, KR
'A number of days lead to nothing', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE
Expo Chicago, Nino Mier Gallery, USA
'An apple can't be tired', Be-Part, Waregem, BE

2022

'When weeds bloom', Nino Mier Gallery, LA, USA

2021

'I can tell you stories', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE
'Everybody's heard about the bird', PUBLIC Gallery, London, UK

2019

'Tomorrow is so far away', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE
'Opwaartse spuwende fonteinen en dwarrelende regen', AIP, Hoboken, BE

2018

'I eat her lips and she eats mine', The White house Gallery, Lovenjoel, BE

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024

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

2023

Miart, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Milan, IT

2022

'Vacation II', Vacancy Gallery, Shanghai, CN

2021

'Nada Miami', Nino Mier, Miami, USA

2020

'Danser Brut', Bozar, Brussels, BE
'De Nacht', De Warande, Turnhout, BE
'L'heure bleue', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde & PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, BE
'Investec Cape Town Artfair', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Cape Town, SA
Art Rotterdam, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde & PLUS-ONE Gallery, Rotterdam, NL

2019

Art Brussels, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde & PLUS-ONE Gallery, Brussels, BE
'Coup de foudre', Belfius Collectie, Art Brussels, BE
Art Rotterdam, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde & PLUS-ONE Gallery, Rotterdam, NL
'Looking at the world through rose colored glasses', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE

2018

'SOFT?', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE
Showhouse JayJay, Antwerp, BE
'Red to brown', ABC klubhuis, Antwep, BE

Prizes

2018

Nomination Gavere prize

2012

Prize “Schildersprijs” for Painting of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts

2010

Proost de Barsy prize for Painting of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts

Bibliography

2021

Gezelligheid op een druiligere dag
In collaboration with Posture Editions

Artworks

Pieter Jennes
Gelukkig in Amsterdam, 2023
Oil and collage on canvas
169 x 150 cm

Pieter Jennes
I'm glad there is you, 2023
Oil and collage on canvas
200 x 190 cm

Pieter Jennes
You always get the best, 2023
Oil and collage on canvas
190 x 240 cm

Pieter Jennes
Something of the past is present, 2023
Oil and collage on canvas
190 x 170 cm

Pieter Jennes
When look up?, 2023
Oil and collage on canvas
200 x 190 cm

Pieter Jennes
A number of days lead to nothing 6, 2023
Collage on paper
Collage: 60 x 73 cm
Frame: 73 x 86 cm

Pieter Jennes
A number of days lead to nothing 7, 2023
Collage on paper
Collage: 58 x 53 cm
Frame: 72,5 x 68,5 cm

Pieter Jennes
We were looking for the giant shot, 2022
Oil and collage on canvas
200 x 170 cm

Pieter Jennes
The earth is a fresh planet , 2022
Oil and collage on canvas
230 x 200 cm

Pieter Jennes
Full of startling and beautiful things, 2022
Oil and collage on canvas
170 x 150 cm

Pieter Jennes
Some tall tales are real, 2022
oil on canvas
180 x 150 cm

Pieter Jennes
Il faut cultiver notre jardin, 2022
oil and collage on canvas
170 x 200 cm

Pieter Jennes
Cherish & love, 2021
Oil on canvas
170 x 200 cm

Pieter Jennes
Everybody: 'Who's that boy?!', 2021
Oil on canvas
150 x 180 cm

Pieter Jennes
Snackbar, 2021
Oil on canvas
200 x 190 cm

News

Press

Pieter Jennes graduated in Fine Arts from The Royal Academie of fine Arts, Antwerp, 2013 in painting and earned a post graduate degree in curatorial studies from The Royal Academie of fine Arts & University of Gent, 2014.

He works across sculpture and painting. His artworks
explores narratives of representation and becoming, as well as of inclusion and exclusion; and is particularly concerned with what are considered alternative historiographies.
Pieter Jennes' paintings are flat - meaning perspectiveless and two-dimensional -they are graphically and rudimentally elaborated with roughly sketched, simply presented figures, with a preference for a reduced color palette of brick red and matt turquoise. Jennes looks back on old and contemporary cultural phenomena and shows us a new, composed story in the form of paintings, sculptures and drawings.

Jennes often paints scenes that are reminiscent of folklore or
comic theater performances. His Dionysian dancers set up all possible faces. They wear masks of drunkenness, horror, boredom, or shame or apathy.

Serious and playful, hard and disarming, threatening and seductive. It is in the gaze of Pieter Jennes, it is the world of his paintings