For Love's S(n)ake

 

Johan Van Mullem (Belgian painter born in 1959) persisted in his youthful search for  wrinkled faces, seeking the beauty he recognized in an experience engraved on the faces and in the hands.  Since then, the face remains the major subject of his work but over time reversing the imprint of it on his own face while these subjects seem to rejuvenate, disappearing or emerging in a halo of light in an old-fashioned sfumato, offering the gaze an escape into the world of emotion, because Johan van Mullem's work is an invitation to introspection, to a journey whose omnipresent emotional charge cannot leave indifferent as the depth is often dizzying.  The superimposition and erasure of the very many smooth layers of the diluted inks further accentuates this feeling of inexpressible presence on the canvas. The self-taught mastery of the specific and unique technicality of his work because only executed in etching ink (an extension of his experience as an engraver) gives his work an additional exceptional character.  Complete artist, designer, painter and sculptor, (but also poet and musician) Johan Van Mullem strives to create a multiple, diverse but absolutely coherent work offering links and bridges to all our senses awakened by this work that projects as much into the past as into a contemporaneity.

Johan's work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in many important collections

 

Solo Exhibitions

2023    For Love's S(nake) . Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts . Bruxelles ( BE ) . march

2022    ATARAXIE .  Loo & Lou Gallery .  Paris ( FR ) .  fev

2019    APNEA .  GR Gallery.  New York ( US ) .  nov

2019    REVERENCE .  Unit London .  London ( GB ) .  march

2018    Bleu Topique .  Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins.  Mougins ( FR ).  nov

2017    3 Espaces, 3 Univers .  LOO & Lou Gallery .  Paris ( FR ).  march

2016    GALERIE DUCHOZE .  Rouen ( FR ) .  oct

2016    DE ANIMA .  the UNIT LONDON .  London ( UK ) .  dec

2016    Espace B .  Glabais ( BEL ) .  nov

2016    MUSEE D'IXELLES .  Brussels ( BEL ) .  oct

2015    Face à Face .  Galerie SCHWAB BEAUBOURG .  Paris ( FR ) .  sept

2015    Fiat Lux .  Hus Gallery .  London ( UK ) .  june

2014    MUSEE D'IXELLES.  acquisition d'une oeuvre .  sept

2014    Meta Morphoses .  MACADAM Gallery .  Bruxelles ( BEL ) .  oct

2014    C24 Gallery .  New York (  USA ) .  jan

2013    Origin.  Hus Gallery .  London ( UK ).  oct

2012    Andipa & Hus Gallery .  London ( UK ) .  nov

2011    Hus Gallery .  London ( UK ) .  jun

2011    Arthus Gallery .  Brussels ( BEL ) .  sept

2010    Chapelle de Boondael .  Brussels ( BEL ) .  may

2010    Anarto .  Anvers ( BEL ) .nov

Group Exhibitions

2022   "RECUEIL Chapitre I" . Galerie B . Durbuy ( BEL ) . mars

2021    Back to life .  GR Gallery .  New York ( USA ) .  june

2021    "When photos spy the paintings" . Galerie B. Durbuy ( BEL ) . may

2019    Festival Damme .  Damme ( BEL ) .  sept

2019    iide - International Interior Design Exhibition .  Bruxelles ( BEL ) .  sept

2019    BENJAMIN ECK PROJECTS .  Munich ( DE ) .  jan

2017    L'expressionisme contemporain en France et ses marges .  Kaunas ( LIT ) .  nov

2017    Abstract X ed # 2 .  Aeroplastics .  Bruxelles ( BEL ) .  june

2017    Abstract X ed # 1 .  Aeroplastics .  Bruxelles ( BEL ) .  apr

2017    ART PARIS ART FAIR .  with LOO & LOU GALLERY .  apr

2016    ART'UP ROUEN .  Rouen ( FR ) .  oct

2016    drawing rooms#2 .  PAK GISTEL ( BEL) .  sept

2016    This is not a landscape .  PAK GISTEL ( BEL ) .  may

2016    Créations Belges .  MAZEL GALERIE .  Bruxelles ( BEL ) .  feb

2015    8 ème Avenue .  Paris ( FR ) .  oct

2015    Mosaïques .  Pont Sainte Marie ( FR ) .  oct

2015    Kantfabriek .  Vilvoorde ( BEL ) .  sept

2015    ART'UP  with Macadam gallery .  Lille ( FR ) .  feb 

2014    SAO - PAULO International Art Fair with Hus Gallery .  ( BZL ) .  apr

2014    DALLAS Art Fair with Hus Gallery .  ( USA ) .  apr

2014    Paysagistes contemporains, autour de Nehlich.  Galerie Schwab Beaubourg . Paris ( FR ) .  

2013    BRAFA with Sem-Art .  Brussels ( BEL ) .  jan

2012    Hus Gallery .  Gstaad ( CH ) .  feb

2011    Lineart Gent with Macadam gallery .  Gent ( BEL ) .  feb

2011    Art Fair London with Hus gallery .  London ( UK ) .  oct

2011    Sem-Art & Hus Gallery .  Monaco ( MO ) .  may

2010    Lille Art Fair with Macadam gallery .  Lille ( FR ) .  may

2010    Art Gallery 826 .  nokke ( BEL ) .  may

2010    AAF Paris with Art gallery 826 .  Paris ( FR ) .  may

2010    été Contemporain Dracenois .  Draguignan ( FR ) .  aug

2010    AAF London with Art Gallery 826 .  London ( UK ) .  oct