Rinus Van de Velde: I am done singing about the past

Tim Van Laere Gallery Rome presents I am done singing about the past. Rinus Van de Velde’s eighth solo exhibition since the beginning of his collaboration with Tim Van Laere Gallery in 2011 and his first solo exhibition in the Roman gallery space.

Rinus Van de Velde is a total artist who constantly explores the tension between fiction and reality through the use of different media such as drawings, installations, ceramics and films. His drawings are the core of his artistic practice in which he constructs a multiverse of storylines where he alters his own story to a fictional autobiography. In these stories, he interweaves reality with fiction, which gives him the freedom to appropriate everything that finds its way into his world. He has already created several alter egos that allow him to appropriate different personas and explore worlds that do not (yet) belong to him. Throughout these different worlds, the constant anchor point is the artist himself. Through impersonations, constructed lies, and appropriations, he comes closer to uncovering the truth about his own identity and artistry.

At the beginning of his career he was mostly drawn to the technique of charcoal, where the drawings clearly distinguished themselves from reality by presenting a black and white universe for Van de Velde’s narratives. In recent years he expanded his drawing practice by adding color, starting with the colored pencil drawings, to allow more possibilities and layers in his works. For more than ten years, Van de Velde searched for a color technique in drawing with the same expressive power and possibilities as charcoal. He found those qualities in oil pastel, a material that enables him to draw in the same powerful and fluid way as charcoal while offering a wider range of possibilities.

I am done singing about the past marks the artist’s first solo show in Italy. In this exhibition he presents a new series of drawings in charcoal, colored pencil and oil pastel. In his drawings, he codifies the world through a collection of images and combines them into the narrative of his fictional autobiography. According to Van de Velde, telling a lie is much more interesting than telling the truth. Through daydreaming he can travel anywhere, have the most interesting encounters or conversations, and be anybody or anything he pleases to be. His works visualises these imaginary journeys where inner truths are masqueraded under the web of lies laid out by the artist. The handwritten texts underneath the drawings offer a glimpse of Van de Velde’s internal monologues. They reveal his fears, aspirations, desires and state of mind.

Rinus Van de Velde (b. 1983) lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Solo exhibitions of the artist’s work have been held in international institutions including Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar (2023); BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (2022); Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne (2021); FRAC des Pays de la Loire (2021); KWM artcentre, Beijing (2019); Bærum Kulturhus, Sandvika (2019); Kunstpalais, Erlangen (2018); Nest, The Hague (2017); Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague (2016); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2015, 2008); Kunsthalle, São Paulo (2015); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Malaga (2013); Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam (2012); Institut für zeitgenössische Kunst, Nürnberg (2010); Be-Part, Waregem (2009) and Lokaal 01, Antwerp (2008) amongst many others.



Van de Velde’s works are in the collections of A.Z. Artgestion Collection, Bilbao; Belfius Art Collection, Brussels; CAC, Malaga; Colección SOLO, Madrid; Erasmus University, Rotterdam; Ghisla Art Collection, Locarno; FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Nantes; Karel De Grote Hogeschool, Antwerp; Kunsthalle, São Paulo; Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague; KPN Art Collection, Rotterdam; Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne; KWM artcenter, Beijing; M HKA, Antwerp; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar; S.M.A.K., Ghent and the Stad Antwerpen.