YIA#02 – Isabel Devos

«Her landscapes are not born of reality but are sublimated and brought to life by small details.»

「 她的風景並非源於現實，而是通過微小的細節而昇華並賦予了生命。 」

YIA ART FAIR#02

October 31 – November, 4 2019

Le Rivoli Building – 118 Rue de Rivoli,75001, PARIS

Opening: October 31, 12pm (Invited Guests Only)

V&E ART Stand: N1

Isabel Devos, Belgium Artist, graduated at the KASK & CONSERVATORIUM School of Arts Gent. After several years of functional work, she presented her ‘Contemplative Landscapes’ at Casa Argentaurum in Ghent, Belgium. In 2015 she was one of the laureates of Urbanautica Institute’s portfolio review. In March 2017, she showed a selection of her images at Mi Galerie, Paris.

The series ‘Contemplative Landscapes’ pushes the viewer on the border between human and nature to a point that made possible to imagine landscapes from single traces of water on sluices and shores, ready-made details, crops of reality. An expanded view of the world, a further dimension, more open and contemplative. As well said by Dieter Debruyne «by isolating these parts from its context, a peculiar and abstract image arises, referring to the possibility of a landscape and the multi-layered characteristics of a painting». This is not just meant to re-discover the universe in a microcosm; in this act of recognition of the beauty of nature there is something redeeming. «Because it’s in our nature, humans tempt to control nature by building waterways, sluices, and artificial lakes. Hence nature reacts on these borders by leaving remnants behind.» The impact of certain artists is inevitable.

Through photography Isabel gives us a pictorial view of the world, with an open and therefore contemplative mind. This is not just meant to re-discover the universe in a microcosm; in this act of recognition of the beauty of nature, there is something redeeming. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder people say. And maybe it is, and there is no artifice, bank, wall, or anything that can truly contain it. Her landscapes retain an expressionist attitude, with a reminder of the cross-references to the color field research of Rothko, the dull and somewhat dramatic palette of William Congdon landscapes, the attention on daily subjects of Richter, and the ability to mislead the viewer and to cause distraction on “what it is” of Rudolf Stingel. All these elements feed Isabel Devos’s vision, an expressive synthesis of rare beauty. An operation of abstraction that is not new. Still the results of Isabel are impressive and of rare beauty.

– Partly excerpts from the article of Steve Bisson on the website of Urbanautica

伊莎貝爾·德沃斯（Isabel Devos）比利時藝術家 ， 畢業於根特 KASK & CONSERVATORIUM 藝術學院。經過幾年對自身藝術理論的積累與探索之後，她在比利時根特的Casa Argentaurum展出了她的“沉思景觀”系列作品。 2017年3月，她在巴黎的Mi Galerie展出多幅個人作品。

<沉思景觀>系列作品將觀者推向人與自然關係的邊界，並使之能夠透過微觀景物去聯想宏觀景物的樣貌 。從此一概念出發 ， 邀請觀者放寬對世界的視野，經過沉思的過程，以獲得對這個世界的維度更加開放性的理解。正如Dieter Debruyne所說的，“從主體的上下文中分離出部分細節，就自然產生了奇特而抽象的圖像，而這部分可以被指認為是風景中蘊含的可能性和作品中潛在的多層特徵”。這不僅僅意味著我們將有機會在一個微觀世界中重新發現浩瀚宇宙；我們還可能因為承認自然之美的過程中尋回那些人類與自然關係中闕漏的平衡關鍵。藝術家無可避免地必須以他們的方式表達出這樣的衝突「由於這是我們的本性，人類會試圖建造水路，水閘和人工湖來控制自然。因此，自然界就會因此在此一平衡關係上做出反應。」

通過攝影作品，伊莎貝爾用開放的，因此而具有沉思性的方式為我們提供了這個世界的圖像性。自然之美是個人主觀的，的確，沒有任何人工產物，河堤，牆壁或任何能夠真正容納自然之美。從她的風景當中我們可以發覺表現主義的態度，以及一些藝術史上可以參考的依據：如Rothko一般的色彩領域研究，William Congdon風景畫中沉悶且同時又戲劇性的顏色表現方法，也發現如Richter日常主題的關注以及誤導觀者的能力。抽像繪畫手法或許並不新穎，但從伊莎貝爾的獨特藝術論述之中融合了這些元素，可以說是一種稀有美感的綜合表達，讓伊莎貝爾的作品仍然令人印象深刻，而且罕見。

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