08.February-15.March.2026
Under Observation
Stefaan Vermuyten
About the exhibition
Solo exhibition with recent paintings by Stefaan Vermuyten
Opening
Sunday 8 February 2026
2:00 – 6:00 pm
In the presence of the artist
Opening hours
Friday – Saturday – Sunday
2:00 – 6:00 pm
Under Observation is not a conceptual exhibition, but a focused selection of recent work. The oeuvre is characterised by an emphasis on heads: not portraits of identifiable individuals, but figures that come into being through the act of painting. They are without name or biography and resist fixed or singular interpretation. It is precisely this indeterminacy that calls for sustained attention and vigilance on the part of the viewer.
These figures are decidedly non-idealised. Their melancholy and imperfection are not the result of psychological narration, but arise directly from the painterly process itself. Paint functions as a determining, guiding and disruptive force. Conventional notions of beauty give way to a sense of presence.
Stefaan Vermuyten does not work from a predetermined image and deliberately avoids preparatory studies or photographic references. Each work is realised entirely in the moment, shaped by chance, risk and continuous transformation. Landscape and figure remain interchangeable, and overpainting is integral to the process. Meaning is not the point of departure, but an outcome. What ultimately remains is an image that projects authority and asserts itself unequivocally in relation to the viewer.
About the location
Langs de Doornstraat, in een volledig nieuw ingerichte tentoonstellingsruimte, vlakbij Dejagere-Aerts Collection en Texture museum aan de Leie, opent Hilde Vandaele Gallery een tweede locatie. Terwijl haar eerste galerie voor hedendaagse kunst gelegen is in het kunstdorp Watou in de Westhoek, kiest ze voor deze nieuwe uitdaging de levendige stad Kortrijk als tweede uitvalsbasis.