EXHIBITIONS

LIGHT FALLS by DIDIER MAHIEU

The world we see is made of light reflected by the things we look at. For this exhibition Didier Mahieu recorded this light, holding and shaping his fleeting images. Light Falls explores the relationship the artist has with light and the way it influenced his work. The artist’s works in the exhibition prioritise shape, form and expression over recognisable subject matter. In some you sense the mythical connection humanity’s always had with light. In others you’re mystified by the idea of the night being completely replaced by artificial light.

Throughout the exhibition paintings and objects reveal the ever changing relationship between light and dark. We start with an installation that combines in itself the clearly distinct essential qualities of painting, sculpture and photography. We end with art from today, at a time when artists no longer define themselves by their choice of medium. Mahieu is free to shape light however he chooses. His main sources of inspiration were Greek vases, Egyptian effigies, Hiroshima atom bombings, early 20th century Chinese photography.

Didier Mahieu has had numerous solo exhibitions all over the world, including “The precious power of stones”, MAMAC, Nice, The Brigitinnes - Le Jardin en Verre Brussels, Sketch London (film), Gembloux - Scaphandre, Soul-Bruges, the Economist Plaza for the Contemporary Arts Society London, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the PMMK in Ostend, the Chelsea Art Museum in New York, l’embarcadere Monceau les Mines France and the Museum of Guangdong in China.

Group exhibitions include the triennial Beaufort in 2003, the European Central Bank in Frankfurt am Main, the Grand Palais in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen.

His works are held in numerous private collections and in Belgian and international public collections such as the collection of the National Bank of Belgium, the collection of the French Community and the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Mons, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille, the Maritime Museum of Istanbul and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Varna, Bulgaria.