Eyckermans' figures often appear suspended mid-action, further dramatized through the use of strong shadows and nearly filmic lighting. He builds his paintings through composite sketches, allowing for distortion to accumulate as he works, contorting and exaggerating his subjects' poses to suggest narratives outside of the painting's frame. Throughout his compositions, Eyckermans interjects both symbolic elements, and historical references, including those to the sculptural practices of his father and grandfather, who previously used the studio in which he works. This historical inquiry is combined with Eyckermans' own personal experience, as he often draws on his daily life, suggesting that modernity, and historicity exist as part of the same continuum, building on one another to create new visual languages.
Read MoreBendt Eyckermans lives and works in Antwerp. In 2021, his work was included in the group exhibitions Lipstick and Gas Masks, M HKA, Antwerp, and Fifteen Painters, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York. Past solo exhibitions include Blue shadow, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, 2019, Yellow leaves, CARLOS/ISHIKAWA, London, 2019, A Stranger's Hand, S.M.A.K., Ghent, 2018, among others.
Text courtesy Andrew Kreps Gallery.
