Art & Culture aux Ric’s Boats
Des le début les Ric’s Boats ont mis en exergue les facettes culturelles et artistiques.
Erik Pevernagie, président et artiste visuel, a exposé à plusieurs reprises au Ric’s Art Boat. Après des expositions à Paris, Berlin, New York, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf et Anvers.
Il a invité Nicolas Vial, illustrateur du « Monde », qui à exposé ses tableaux et dessins aux cimaises du Ric’s Art Boat.
Les cinéastes Claude Lelouche et Atom Egoyan y ont tenu leurs conférences, Tom Barman (Deus) animé une soirée, « The Kooks » tenu leur concert.
Hugo Claus, Axelle Red, Benoit Lamy, Jan Verheyen , Luc Tuyman, Laurent Busine et des centaines d’autres ont participé à l’enchantement des Ric’s Boats. Albert Baronian (Art Brussels) a expliqué sa stratégie artistique.
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Selection at
Bonhams, London
Post War and Contemporary Art
« Living on Probation »
Erik Pevernagie
September 2009
« Vivre à l'épreuve. Erik Pevernagie est particulièrement connu pour sa façon d'exprimer
sa philosophie artistique. Grâce à sa représentation picturale le spectateur peut découvrir tout un éventail de facettes typiques de notre société actuelle. Derrière la «matière», on peut reconnaître «l'idée». Détails de la vie sont utilisés pour ouvrir des portes aux valeurs universelles. Dans ce travail, il s’intéresse au problème du sida. Après ses rencontres avec des victimes du sida il a compris qu'elles appartiennent au groupe des prédestinés "à ne pas avoir de chance». Il a décidé donc de compatir activement avec les personnes qui ont été condamnés à vivre en liberté surveillée. »
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Selection at
Christie’s, New York
Rockefeller Plaza 20
10020 NY
« Crépuscule du désir »
Erik Pevernagie
September 2007
Crépuscule du désir: Twilight of desire.
People feel so tired and burnt out by consumption. Says Pevernagie: “They are no longer able to invent themselves. At most, they are prepared to call upon some gadgets in order to create a pretence of desire. But this is only deception. Nothing can make them want anything or anybody anymore. That feeling of wanting or longing has become absent. That specific feeling is definitely dying.” The artist senses the decline of emotions. No time left for long stories. No patience for a better knowledge of fellowmen. No “ardeur patiente” to get to the core. No lenient “Sehnsucht” that gives soothing colours to encounters.
People inexorably yield to the invasion of the catwalk. Disposable goods and fake feelings are easily acquired and without commitment. Twilight of desire.
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Selection at
Christie’s, New York
Rockefeller Plaza 20
Erik Pevernagie
« Man without Qualities »
January 2006
“Robert Musil has undoubtedly inspired Pevernagie’s « Man without Qualities ».
By denying any physical presence of the character and leaving simply dress evidence,
the artist gives us a reproduction of the ground zero of the mind.
Indeed, his anti-hero has decided to make tabula rasa and get rid of all acquired alleged qualities.
In his artistic work Pevernagie often claims space for reflection, time for new oxygen, recovery of spiritual regeneration and intervals for active awareness aimed at calling matters into question.”
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Selection at
Sotheby’s, New York
Erik Pevernagie
“Absence of Desire”
December 2005
Absence of Desire: oil, sand and metal filings on canvas
80 cm x 100 cm
“Standing in front of "Absence of Desire", painting by Pevernagie, I wonder: "Who feels the absence of desire? ". The absence is not explained by the decomposed, half-naked, headless female bodies. It is not confined to the painting. On the contrary, the absence of desire gradually invades the beholder who is in front of the painting.
The artistic approach of Erik Pevernagie, the requirements of the composition, the structure of the canvas with its transversal lines and diagonals remind me of the stained glasses of cathedrals.
The large needles of these cathedrals tearing the blue of the sky in their search of god. The iridescent stained glasses pouring light under the high vaults which embody faith and a belonging to the world beyond. The beauty of stained glass removes all the thoughts of a physical world which surrounds man.
One can say that Erik Pevernagie’s "stained glass" rejects the body (rather pointed out by outlines than depicted) in the same way as the Middle Ages rejected the body while accentuating the face which was transformed into an icon. The metal framework of the "stained glass" is transformed into a kind of cage, of grid which imprisons the body.
But with Erik Pevernagie this rejection of the body leads us into a dead end: there are no faces, no heads: their absence precisely underlines the body which has to be denied.
In the course of the centuries the human body has been admired for its beauty and its plasticity. Man has appreciated the joy of the flesh. But the body has also been rejected and even perverted.
Erik Pevernagie’s painting represents the indifference, the insensitivity towards the human body and woman’s body in particular. It outlines man’s asexuality and inaction.
Pevernagie notes that his (I quote) “contemporaries are convinced they know the world inside out. They tasted life in all its aspects and feel now that they are at the end of their tether. They are tired and are no longer able to invent themselves. At most, they are prepared to call upon some gadgets in order to create a pretence of desire. But this is only deception. Nothing can make them want anything or anybody anymore. That feeling of wanting has become absent. That specific feeling has definitely died.”
Absence of desire has become the metaphor of absence of life.
"Absence of Desire" is the stained glass window which opens into the gap of the cathedral of emptiness.( L.Krasnova)
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Selection at
Horta, Brussels
Erik Pevernagie
« You never get a handkerchief
when you really need it»
June 2005
“You never get a handkerchief when you really need it ”
100 cm x 100 cm
“The handkerchief the girl didn’t get, when she really needed it.
The artist has been keeping this image in the camera obscura of his memory and has translated it on the canvas.
Erik Pevernagie decomposes the scene. Face and handkerchief are caught in a pattern of lines and surfaces.
In a time where feelings are kept a secret and showing one’s feelings seems ludicrous and ridiculous the painter opposes two fundamental elements of daily life: tragedy and comedy.”
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Selection at
William Doyle, New York
Modern and contemporary art
Erik Pevernagie
« Esprit d’Escalier »
May 24, 2005
“ Esprit d’escalier, wit of the staircase: Those biting ripostes that are thought of just seconds too late,
on the way out of the room.
Erik Pevernagie is a pictorial story teller. He brings to life events from our collective memory. Events everybody has been faced with, at least, once in his lifetime.
The painter conceptualizes this feeling of momentary powerlessness and abstracts this situation on the canvas.
A character and a small bulb (a lightening idea) are introduced in a framework of geometrical lines and surfaces .
Again and again Pevernagie takes up the challenge
of walking on the edge of the abstract and the figurative expression.” (L. Krasnova)
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Selection at
Horta, Brussels
November 2004
Erik Pevernagie
„ Une femme peut en cacher une autre“
« Toujours attentif au monde qui l'entoure, le peintre Erik Pevernagie accorde à l'Homme une place prépondérante dans ses tableaux. Replacé dans son environnement que l'artiste évoque parfois par des graffiti, l'individu paraît absorbé, dilué, par les éléments qui l'entourent. Les subtiles touches de couleurs, les formes mi - abstraites, mi - figuratives, et le cadrage particulier concourent à dissoudre le sujet dont la vie semble n'être qu'apparence. Pevernagie nous invite à aller au - delà de ces apparences afin de percevoir le mystère qui se rame derrière ses personnages en perpétuelle tension, comme en attente d'autre chose, d'une autre vie. » (Le vif L’express)
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Selection at
William Doyle, New York
May 2004
Erik Pevernagie
« Waiting for a moment »
”We read the title and the visual content of the painting is being transposed onto a philosophical scale.The rough and schematic manner of the painter deprives the represented figure of any particular and personal feature, thus making it easier for the beholder to imagine himself at the place of the figure.”(L. Krasnova)"We read the title and the visual content of the painting is being transposed onto a philosophical scale.The rough and schematic manner of the painter deprives the represented figure of any particular and personal feature, thus making it easier for the beholder to imagine himself at the place of the figure."(L. Krasnova)
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Selection at
Bonhams, London
November 2004
Erik Pevernagie
« Waiting for a place behind the Geraniums»
"The artist gives us an iconographic representation of time going by, time
being wasted, time being killed.
He shows us an abstract image from the collective memory: man sitting at his window behind his familiar flowers,
impatiently waiting for retirement, longing for eternal peace.
By means of geometrical compositions and lines the artist guides us through chronological and psychological time.
Real time and wishful thinking."
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Selection at
William Doyle, New York
December 2004
Erik Pevernagie
« The Power behind the Glory»
“The artist realizes that the world in general and life in
particular are governed by important messengers.
He is aware that several undercurrent drives may push us
in all kind of inexplicable directions.
Power and glory are two such important elements.
Emphasizing the dialectical approach of matters and situations has been a main concern of this painter.
Erik Pevernagie has been focussing on translating interferences between different ”qualities” into iconographic
transcriptions.”
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Selection at
Drouot, Paris
Catherine Charbonneaux
October 2004
Erik Pevernagie
»Le ballon est chez le voisin »