°1985, Ghent, Belgium Lives and works in Ghent, Belgium
At first glance the paintings of Ritsart Gobyn appear to be a random assemblage of traces of a creational process. Drops and sweeps of paint, pieces of wood, tape and shreds of paper cover unprimed pieces of linen. Wooden remains are attached around it and function as a frame, which grants it the status of painting and suggests that it is finished. This work seems like a negation of the image. Or at least a parergon, a byproduct that arises in creating something else. The perception changes however when the pieces of tape and the shreds of paper appear to be small trompe l’oeils. A new negation arises, but this time a denial of the negation. What the spectator believed to perceive, appeared to be an illusion. The negation of the image emphasizes the image even more and pulls it into a pictorial esthetic context. It becomes (self)critical and at the same time esthetic, abstract and figurative, parergon and simultaneously ergon.
Since ancient times the trompe l’oeil was the ultimate mimesis. As every other illusion, this optic illusion is necessarily temporary and the successful creation of a trompe l’oeil fully depends on whether or not the goal of deceiving is achieved. As soon as the optical illusion is pierced, the role of the trompe l’oeil shrinks to a decorative ornament that, at best, only amazes through the virtuosity of the realization. Since result-oriented virtuosity and striving toward an ever more exact copy of reality is no longer the ultimate goal in the contemporary visual arts, the technique of the trompe l’oeil faded into the background in the twentieth century. Ritsart Gobyn however uses the trompe l’oeil as a pictorial strategy to attend the viewer, through the illusion of the result, to the artistic process of creation. In this way, the trompe l’oeil itself transforms from a simple matter of optical illusion and appearance to a searchlight in the artistic process itself. It questions the ‘status’ of the painting as an image but also as an object.
Ritsart Gobyn is represented by Gallery Sofie Van de Velde.
Solo exhibitions
'Prologue', PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
'The Endless Rehearsal', PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
'Memories of things to be done', Kunsthal Gent, Ghent, (BE)
'Parergon, Rossicontemporary', Brussels, (BE) C.N.G. 36, Blanco, Ghent, (BE)
'Vanitas' (Mural), Blanco, Ghent, (BE)
'Interlude', Rossicontemporary, Brussels, (BE)
'In The Making', Cc Gildhof, Tielt, (BE) 'Het Kabinet: Ritsart Gobyn', CIAP, Hasselt, (BE)
'You are here', CJK, Ghent, (BE)
Group exhibitions
‘FACE TIME’, PLUS-ONE Gallery (New South), Antwerp, BE
'Zandgrond', De Warande, Turnhout, BE 'Head Games', Piermarq* Gallery, Sydney (AU) 'Stille Levens', Koen Broucke, Venetiaanse Gaanderijen, Oostende (BE)
'Altered States', PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, (BE) 'A moment', Tesoro Collection, Amsterdam (NL)
'1.1 Million Pounds', Barbé-Urbain Gallery, Ghent, (BE) 'One way or another', SMAK, Ghent, (BE) 'Nuages, La Maison des Arts', Brussels, (BE) 'Door het doek het schilderij', Roger Raveel Museum, Machelen, 'Lost in Translation', PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, (BE)
'Salon des Artistes', Oud Zwembad, Ronse, (BE) 'Stimulans', Paardenstallen, Kortrijk, (BE) 'Gaverprijs', Cc De Schakel, Waregem, (BE) 'No pain no gain', Dauwens & Beernaert Gallery, Brussels, (BE)
'Small World', The Painter The Work And The Studio revisited, Caesuur, Middelburg, (NL) 'On the move', Blanco, Ghent, (BE) '3', Gallery d’Apostrof, Deinze, (BE)
'Input/Output', De Bond, Brugge, (BE)
'Au lieu', Rossicontemporary, Brussels, (BE) 'Tumultingent #4', Gouvernement, Ghent, (BE) 'Gaverprijs', Cc De Schakel, Waregem, (BE) 'Cachet de la poste faisant foi', Fondation Hippocrène – Villa Mallet-Stevens, Paris, (FR)
Prijs voor abstracte schilderkunst, Cc Zwanenberg, Heist-op-den-Berg, (BE NVT Gallery invites: Ritsart Gobyn & David Granados, NVT Gallery, Ghent, (BE) 'thaka 23', Leuven, (BE) 'Tumultingent #3', Campo Victoria, Ghent, (BE)
'Putsch, Entrepot', Brugge, (BE) 'Jonge Loten' (Kunst in Huis), Cc Westrand, Dilbeek, (BE) 'Mind the gap', V-Art, Waregem, (BE)
'Series', Zuiderpershuis, Antwerp, (BE) 'Ik ben niet gek', ICC, Ghent, (BE)
Awards
Input/Output, 2017, Honorable mention Ik ben niet gek, 2013 – 1st Price Prijs van het Landschap Michel Depypere, 2012 – 2nd Price Thesis Award, Luca School of arts, 2009 – 1st Price
Ritsart Gobyn Untitled (Claus II), 2022 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, wooden frame 52,5 x 42,5 cm
Ritsart Gobyn Untitled, 2023 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, wooden frame, painted casted aluminum (installation) 117 x 107 cm (work on canvas: 42 x 32 cm)
Ritsart Gobyn Untitled (C.D Friedrich VI), 2023 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, wooden frame 182,5 x 132,5 cm
Ritsart Gobyn Untitled (Van Ruisdael V), 2023 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 160 x 115 cm
Ritsart Gobyn Untitled (van Ruisdael), 2024 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 103 x 77,5 cm
Ritsart Gobyn Untitled (Hodler), 2024 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, wooden frame 82,5 x 44,5 x 24 cm
Ritsart Gobyn Untitled, 2024 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 40 x 30 cm (RG184)
Ritsart Gobyn Untitled, 2024 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 40 x 30 cm (RG185)
Ritsart Gobyn Untitled, 2024 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 40 x 30 cm (RG186)