NYAB Event - Klaus Verscheure "smiling faces and holiday greetings"

Klaus Verscheure "smiling faces and holiday greetings"

Witzenhausen Gallery

This event has ended.

witzenhausen gallery new york presents work by belgian artist klaus verscheure in collaboration with amsterdam-based gallery ‘amstel gallery’. the exhibition “smiling faces and holiday greetings” is on show from february 25th till march 27th at the witzenhausen gallery in new york.

klaus verscheure’s recent black-and-white series are purposefully thrown sledgehammers that hit you right in the face. they are fascinating series with titles as ‘smiling faces’, ‘hanging trees’ or ‘holiday greetings’.
looking at ‘smiling faces’, we see a series of roughly brushed gouache work on paper that show faces of unknown or forgotten faces. these works convey a strange feeling of melancholy that has little in common with the smile that the title of the work suggests. for good reason, as becomes clear when you realize the works are all portraits of unknown or lesser known war criminals.

the series ‘holiday greetings’ was first exhibited last summer in ostend, belgium, and certainly does not depict holiday-memories, but images of warzones that should really be tourist resorts: gaza, israel and lebanon.

with the series ‘hanging trees’, verscheure succeeds in banning every melancholic, wistful thought. for the first time, he paints landscapes. he does this in the same black and white pallet we are accustomed to and by doing so the paintings have that same amazing and fascinating quality as his other work.

verscheure calls himself a chronicler. his paintings and video work are his diary writings. they are painted impressions of newsflashes, internet views and of experiences in the field (for example: he was in bosnia at the end of the war).
his paintings are a statement. they are posters of places with heavenly names such as “guantanamo bay” and “gaza beach”.

klaus verscheure is a 41 mid career artist who’s work been a long kept secret. he hardly shows his work to the public, most of his works never left his studio but a few months back, he decided that the time had come to open the doors of his studio and to step out to show his work.