Fred&Ferry Gallery 2021-2022

Frank&Robbert Robbert&Frank

A wooden case becomes a painted shrine becomes a live performance becomes a ceramic tile becomes a charcoal wall drawing. A work of art is never finished and might only reach its full potential by being enlivened again and again in different contexts. Their process-oriented way of working is characterized by frequent repetition, retranslation; it is a relentless alchemy of elements.

Robbert&Frank Frank&Robbert, “Magic Mirrors”, Fred&Ferry Gallery, Antwerp (05.09-09.10.2021)
Text (NL and EN) coinciding with the exhibition
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Mirthe Klück

It is a characteristic tension between sentiment and dryness, between the light-hearted rhythm of compositions and the undramatic content, which Klück seeks out. Influences of kitsch and pop art subtly shine through – as she herself agreed, “if you can’t be cheesy, you can’t be free”.

Mirthe Klück, “Moon White Rabbit”, Fred&Ferry Gallery, Antwerp (24.10-28.11.2021)
Text (NL and EN) coinciding with the exhibition
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Jana Coorevits

The hurt landscape in the hurt body, the hurt body in the hurt landscape. Just like the desert, the injury changes, barely visible, with the passage of time. Just like the landscape was built up in layers over time, the skin consists of superimposed layers. Contours, tissues and wounds can be recognized in both, in all depths.

Jana Coorevits, “all day I’ve built a lifetime and now the sun sinks to undo it”, Fred&Ferry Gallery, Antwerp (05.12.2021-22.01.2022)
Text (NL and EN) coinciding with the exhibition
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Toon Leën

“Putting something between the dashes”, as you phrase it, can be interpreted in two ways though. One could argue that dashes are a means of separating information that might not be essential. Howevery, on the contrary, one could also think of them as tools to highlight a thought, enable something to be included even though it might not perfectly fit in the ongoing narrative. What is your take on the ‘dash’?

Toon Leën, “—Sarah Bal—“, Fred&Ferry Gallery, Antwerp (06.02-12.03.2022)
Interview (NL and EN) with Sarah Bal coinciding with the exhibition
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Winnie Claessens

Musk has repeatedly expressed his ambition to put humans on Mars within five years. Is that kind of boundless belief in the promise of a new world admirable? How much will this achievement require, and from whom? Doesn’t space travel sicken the Earth even more? Who decides how a new society on a new planet would take shape? The first settler?
These are multifaceted questions that also resonated with Winnie Claessens.

Winnie Claessens, “Now on its way to the —” “Copy, one Alpha” “Enduring laboratory in orbit”, Fred&Ferry Gallery, Antwerp (03.04-07.05.2022)
Text (NL and EN) coinciding with the exhibition
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Thomas Verstraeten

Verstraeten embraces this unpredictability in his attempts to get as close as possible to the equally unruly human existence. It is also unavoidable, given his chosen material: his projects are not shaped by the performance of professional actors, but by the participation of ordinary people. They play no role, only themselves. Their true re-enactment of the everyday sharpens the perspective: as a spectator, you see a reality unfolding that you otherwise might have missed, because you might have been in the middle of it yourself.

Thomas Verstraeten, “Look out the window. What you are seeing is called history.”, Fred&Ferry Gallery, Antwerp (26.05-02.07.2022)
Text (NL and EN) coinciding with the exhibition
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