Robin Vermeerch Watching Windows
Exhibition catalogue and poster

poster selected for the Taiwan International Poster
and CI Design Awards, Taiwan

poster selected for the 12th International Biennial Of Theatre Posters
Rzeszow, Poland

The concept of the catalogue was to make a sort of lookbook with details of the works as seen from the viewpoint of the visitor. The cover is sort of threedimensional seethrough window with embossed print and the letters reflected on the back. The drawings for the cover and poster were made from photographs of small sculptures from the atelier.The yellow fluo ink emphasises the threedimensional effect.

 

A World through the Window

“What matters most is finding the nuances in which I conceal myself” Maurice Gilliams (1900-1982) wrote about the nineteenth century Antwerp genre painter Henry De Braekeleer (1840-1888). Although a young contemporary artist like Robin Vermeersch (°1977) has little or nothing in common with De Braekeleer, Gilliams’s words seem to apply surprisingly well to the oeuvre of this young West-Flemish artist. Vermeersch’s art refers subtly to everyday reality, yet cannot be considered a realistic rendering of it. It merely echoes the known organic world. It focuses on the nuances, on the details. Vermeersch zooms in on them, explores their limits and creates something entirely new out of them. The recognisable is dismantled and reassembled. Something new arises from the details. In this way, the artist creates a different world in which the essence of the existing one is nonetheless comprised. Robin Vermeersch lets his audience take a peek through the window at the world that lies behind it. He lets us almost touch it, but not quite.

As the youngest member of a highly artistic family Robin Vermeersch studied painting at the Saint Luke Academy in Ghent from 1995 until 1999. Since then, however, painting seems to make room more and more often for drawing and sculpture. Robin Vermeersch stealthily and steadily sets out a path of his own, well away from artistic traditions and contemporary trends.

Dorothee Cappelle, December 2008