Stefan Peters
°1978, Hasselt, Belgium.
Lives and works in Hasselt, Belgium.
According to Stefan Peters, the significance of painting is inextricably connected with the meaning of life and the puniness of our existence. Fired by a fixed fascination with the language of painting, Peters has for some years been aspiring to fathom reality by disclosing the mechanics of representation. How and to what extent does the medium’s long tradition provide a response to the complexity of contemporary reality?
The artist makes uses of rhetorical devices such as reversals, mirror imaging and cutting to undermine the elegance of his painting technique. This results in scenes characterised by fairy-like as well as apocalyptic elements. Using indirect lighting, scenic shadows and brush strokes that refuse to take on any descriptive function, Peters dissects what is familiar to us. What he depicts evokes Edward Snowden, inadvertently stumbling onto ‘The Truman Show’ - a scene that elicits the question: ‘Was nothing real?’
The artist meditates in paint while searching for a principle – which increasingly turns out to be the simplicity of a brush stroke or even of a blank space. In the end, Stefan Peters creates visual vortexes. Though there’s always ineluctably something off-kilter about his illusory constructions, they invariably exert a fatal attraction on the viewer.
Stef Van Bellingen
Selected exhibitions:
2022
Thin Places, Johan Tahon + Stefan Peters, 3-18/09/2022, O.L.V. Kerk Rozebeke (BE)
Harlindis & Relindis, (01/07 - 26/09), KunstRoute, Maaseik (BE)
Apollowlands II, (17/03 – 10/04), Kunstenhuis, Harelbeke (BE)
2021
Vanwege Vincent, (18/12/2021 - 01/05/2022), Stedelijk Museum, Breda (NL)
Apollowlands I, (27/11 - 19/12), Ruimte P60, Assen (NL)
Nirvana - Johan Tahon + Stefan Peters, (3/10-3/11), Sereni Leiekant, Kortrijk (BE)
Close-up on Belgian contemporary art, Degroof Petercam, Luxemburg (LU) (with Musée d'Ixelles)
Landschap 2.1, De Domijnen, Sittard (NL)
Locus Amoenus, Brousse, Hasselt (BE)
Einderloos, Kunstgalerij De Mijlpaal, Knokke (BE)
Singing Waves Gallery, City University, Hong Kong (CN)
2020
Landschap 2.0, De Domijnen, Sittard (NL)
Are we there yet?, Galerie Roger Katwijk, Amsterdam (NL)
Van Gogh naar nu, Van Gogh Huis, Zundert (NL)
Lucas Gassel Revisited, Cacaofabriek, Helmond (NL)
Ménage à deux, Stadsmus, Hasselt (BE)
The Syndicate of Belgian painters, CC De Bogaard, Gasthuiskapel, Borgloon (BE)
2018
Biennale van de Schilderkunst, Mudel , Deinze
Ce qui pèse et ce qui nourrit, Autun (FR)
Nomadic Mountains, Schunck, Heerlen (NL)
The Gathering, Panthera, Brussels (BE)
Malerei als Bühne, Bechter-Kastowsky Gallery, Vienna (AT)
Nothing But Good Live II, Park, Tilburg (NL)
2017
Inspiration: Landscape, C-Mine, Genk (BE)
Arture#7, Hof te Roeselare, Herzele (BE)
Celibataire Divas, Herkenrode Refuge, Hasselt (BE)
Between Earth and Heaven, PAK, Brugge (BE)
Tractatus, Bechter-Kastowsky Gallery, Vienna (AT)
The Spring Exhibition, Charlottenborg Kunsthal, Copenhagen (DK)
Reveries of a Solitary Walker, Drei Ringe Galerie, Leipzig (DE)
2016
Subverted Expectations, ArtLounge, Strabag Haus, Vienna (AT)
FashionWeek Paris, Paris (FR) (collaboration Hagahi)
Storytelling, UNC Gallery, Seoul (KR)
NYFW, New York (US) (collaboration Hagahi)
Coup de Ville, Kunstenparcours, Sint Niklaas (by Warp-Art)
Do boomerangs always come back?, Castle Oud-Rekem (BE)
Strabag Art Award, Artlounge Strabag Haus, Vienna (AT)
What about a garden, Hedge House, Wijlre (NL)
De Context, Museum Flehite, Amersfoort (NL)(curator VIncent van Velsen)
2015
Stupid as a painter, Jan Van Eyck Academy, Maastricht (NL)
The Gravity of Painting, Hendrik Van De Weghe Gallery, Antwerp
Aandacht, Aandacht!, C-Mine, Genk – De Warande, Turnhout
2014
Nothing But Good Live, Park, Tilburg (NL)
When paint becomes a subject, Gasthuiskapel, Borgloon
2013
Entering the Picture, Hendrik Van De Weghe Gallery, Antwerp
ART’CONTEST 2013, De Markten, Brussels
Topfloor / Topos, DORDTYART, Dordrecht (NL)(curator Stef Van Bellingen)
Stijn Cole, Bert Jacobs & Stefan Peters, C-Mine, Genk
SERIES, Zuiderpershuis, Antwerpen (curators: Koen van den Broek - Adriaan Raemdonck)
2012
Schriftuur/Scripture, De Bond, Brugge (curator: Michel Dewilde)
Painting Now, Ron Mandos Gallery, Amsterdam (NL)
Landschap, de Warande, Turnhout (curator: Hans op de Beeck)