Since 2008, Yannick Ganseman’s work has consisted of private scenes, still lifes, portraits and landscapes in oil paint and ceramics, mixing sculpture and painting. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries in Flanders, the Netherlands and Japan.

Wolken boven Brussel (Nuages) is his first solo exhibition in Brussels. For CENTRALE | lab, he is challenging himself to produce new works by transposing the context of the Place Sainte-Catherine undergoing construction works.   

The artist will produce a series of large bas-reliefs throughout the exhibition with the intention of linking the outdoor space with CENTRALE | lab. The bas-reliefs will be made of wood, plaster, PU foam and polystyrene. They will be moved to the outside of the lab and thus subjected to the alterations of the weather and to the possible interventions of passers-by. The work process will be visible, with the artist working in the exhibition space. He will be available to meet the visitors.  

This project at the lab is the first step in the creation of a work for public space, representing the clouds and the stormy sky of Brussels. 

Yannick Ganseman (1984, lives and works in Brussels) studied at the Academy of Leuven in Sculpture 2002-2003 and in Drawing 2003-2009. He also studied Art History at the VUB in Brussels from 2015 to 2016. He is represented by OttyPark Gallery, Antwerp. 

With the support of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation

Helen Anna Flanagan presents the project Deeply, Madly at CENTRALE | lab (28.04 > 18.09.2022). A work-in-progress including a film, an installation, watercolours and more.

Burdened by an irrational fear of being pushed onto the metro tracks, a woman muses on what it is to fall. To fall flat, but also to fall heavily in love, deep into sleep, or into a holiday pool that time on a faraway Greek Island at 2am. Water acts as an important element. Waves keep crashing, summoning Deeply, Madly as an obsession with moments of be­ing mid-motion—bodies, emotions and time that all succumb to gravitational forces—from the lovesick, to the slapstick, to the macabre.

The film Deeply, Madly will be shot in two phases throughout 2022 and rely on the seasonal shifts in weather (winter vs summer). CENTRALE | lab will function as a site to present and expand the project, as a part-time studio and exhibition space featuring new video excerpts, sound, writing and watercolour prints, culminating in the presentation of a final single-channel film.

Laureate of the City of Brussels, Art Contest Prize 2021

With the support of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation

Exhibition view: Helen Anna Flanagan, CENTRALE | lab © Ph: Philippe De Gobert, april 2022

Nelleke Cloosterman presents the project Cardshark at CENTRALE | lab (24.11.2022 > 19.03.2023).
For this exhibition, Cloosterman creates walls that are shaped like cards and look like they have randomly been spread into the space.

The title Cardshark refers to someone who makes money by cheating at card games, as well as to the very cards the artist uses in her paintings as vanitas symbols. This might suggest that the exhibited cards have been thrown away by the cardshark (a gambler), thus echoing the vanitas symbol of gambling with life.

The paintings hanging onto the card-walls become windows to Nelleke Cloosterman’s painterly universe. During her work-in-progress at CENTRALE | lab, this universe will expand, a multitude of these ‘windows’ being added, eventually forming a global installation bringing together multi-layered narratives.

Using classic art historical themes and motives – such as plants, animals and soap bubbles – Cloosterman creates a universe that looks familiar, yet often escapes logic or natural laws. Abstract dream landscapes, a flower garden that presents vegetation from every season, or birds flying high in the sky without wings, these are all subtle disruptions of a reality to be received by the viewer.
The gradients that we frequently see in her paintings suggest the compression of time, which contributes to the idea that the painting is not a snapshot but an ongoing landscape where the elements of the painting tell a story.

Nelleke Cloosterman (1996) received her BFA and MFA in Belgium at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Gent en became a HISK alumni in 2021.

With the support of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation