Rinus Van de Velde Belgium, b. 1983

Rinus Van de Velde explores the clear yet obscure definition of ‘reality’ and ‘fiction’, and moreover their intriguing relation. His practice is an outcome of his persistent investigation of those concepts, and narratives constructed by adaptations of them. A critical factor which distinguishes fiction and nonfiction depends on whether an incident actually occurs or not. At this point, another dilemma appears; when an event identical to a certain fiction happens, it can belong to the realm of nonfiction only when there is a witness who watches or records it. Thus, fiction, reality and considerable potential of their loose boundary are the key word to understand Van de Velde’s artistic practice. Through the last solo exhibition at Gallery Baton, Van de Velde mainly unveils his new series of small-sized colored pencil drawings. Although the colorful images which are rarely found in his previous works maintain the layout of his black charcoal paintings, they are reminiscent of trivial events or static landscapes by Edward Hopper due to their relatively small scale. His charcoal paintings pay homage to conventional materials, whereas color drawings remind us of contemporary digital formats such as Instagram, since they have the wider color spectrum and relatively elevated visibility.