Michaël
Borremans
Belgian artist Michaël Borremans made the major transition from photographic expression to painting during the mid-1990s while in his early thirties, and immediately established an international reputation. Teaming techniques that evoke the traditions of Flemish painting—with its detailed depiction and everyday subject matter—and a palpable sense of the veins of mystery and absurdity running through the history of his native land, Borremans’ works may be figurative, yet defy logical interpretation and leave much room for speculation by the viewer.
One distinctive feature of Borremans’ painting is his penchant for depicting people studiously performing some action or another. As its title indicates, Girl with Hands (2013) portrays nothing in particular other than the motion of the woman’s hands, and her impersonal dress and what appears to be almost ritualistic focus on her work seem to quietly avoid any mental engagement with the viewer. True to Borremans’ comment that “the subject is an object to me,” for this artist the subject matter is not a portrait of a specific person, but merely a universal object existing within a state of tense silence, devoid of context or attributes. This group of works in which Borremans depicts a single motif in different styles, drew widespread interest as a new venture for the artist.
2008’s Commutation shows rows of corks without any context. Though a still life—unusual for Borremans—the subject matter is captured in the same room as his other paintings, ie those of people, in the same light, and here he also exhibits the same characteristic painting technique of canvas employing a mainly beige ground, with oils in subdued tones applied thinly to complement that. Automat (3) from the same year presents in a similar manner: though the painting depicts a young woman with hands crossed behind her, viewed diagonally from behind, bizarrely, she is abruptly cut off from the legs down, and seems to exist as an object, such as a chess piece, or torso mannequin. Such vaguely unsettling limning makes the viewer thirst for some sort of meaning, but left with only an impression of mystery.
Alongside his paintings, Borremans’ practice also includes works on video, and drawings. The Feeding (2006) shows three figures standing around a stack of large sheets of white paperboard that float in the air, inserting hands in between, palms up. A futile exercise repeated by anonymous figures, the austere, barren scene that emerges in the meticulous camerawork can yet confidently be described as an extension of the artist’s painted works—peaceful and not reliant on any narrative quality.
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Borremans has exhibited internationally, including the 4th Berlin Biennale (2006) and the 21st Sydney Biennale (2018). In Japan, the artist held his first solo exhibition at Gallery Koyanagi in 2008. In 2013, he was in residence at Ryōsoku-in (Kyoto), where he created ink paintings for hanging scrolls. His first museum solo exhibition in Asia took place in 2014 at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. Concurrently, a major retrospective that began in Brussels traveled to Tel Aviv and Dallas. In 2020, he participated in a two-person exhibition with Mark Manders at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa.
BIOGRAPHY
1963Born in Geraardsbergen, Belgium
Lives and works in Ghent, Belgium
Solo Exhibitions
2024A Confrontation at the Zoo, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands
The Monkey, David Zwirner, London
The Promise, Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai
2022The Acrobat, David Zwirner, New York
2020Coloured Cones, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
The Duck, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague
French Painting, Patricia Vintage, Ghent concurrently on view at Baltimore Bloemen, Antwerp, and Café De Smidse, Horebeke, Belgium
Michaël Borremans Mark Manders|Double Silence, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Ishikawa, Japan
2018Fire From the Sun, David Zwirner, Hong Kong
Michaël Borremans | Mark Manders, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
2017Sixteen Dances, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
2015Fixture, CAC Malaga, Spain
Black Mould, David Zwirner, London
As sweet as it gets, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, USA
2014As sweet as it gets, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel
As sweet as it gets, Bozar, Brussels
Ryosokuin Temple, Kyoto
Girl with Hands, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
The Advantage, Hara Museum, Tokyo
2013The People from the future are not to be trusted, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
2012Magnetics, BAWAG Contemporary, Vienna
2011The Devil’s Dress, David Zwirner, New York
Eating the Beard, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Finland
Eating the Beard, Mücsarnok / Kunsthalle Budapest, Hungary
Eating the Beard, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany
2010Michaël Borremans, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway
Eating the Beard, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
Commission for the Belgian Queen, Royal Palace, Brussels
Looking for the face I had before the world was made, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver
2009Automat, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany
Taking Turns, David Zwirner, New York
2008Michaël Borremans, Overbeck Gesellschaft Lübeck, Germany
Earthlight Room, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
Painted Fruit, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
2007Weight / Veldwerk, de Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam [Centro de Artes Visuais, Coimbra, Portugal (2008)]
Veldwerk, De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam
2006The Good Ingredients, La Maison Rouge – Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Paris
Horse Hunting, David Zwirner, New York
2005The Performance, The Royal Hibernian Academy, Gallagher Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Hallucination and Reality, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA
The Performance, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London
An Unintended Performance, S.M.A.K., Ghent
2004Michaël Borremans: Drawings, Museum Für Gegenwartskunst, Basel
Four Fairies, Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Demark
Fisherman’s Luck, Zeno X Storage, Antwerp
Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Germany
2003Trickland, David Zwirner, NY
2002Young and Innocent, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
2000Vereniging van het S.M.A.K., S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Arctuele Kunst, Ghent
1999The Fetish Paintings, Croxhapoxruimte, Ghent
1998The Mind and It’s Limit’s, In den Bouw, Kalken, Belgium
1997Cerebral Office, Voorkamer, Lier, Belgium
Huize St.-Jacobus, Ghent
1996Croxhapoxruimte, Ghent
