Ilse D’Hollander│Tension Field

Sean Kelly is delighted to present Tension Field, the gallery's third solo exhibition of Belgian artist Ilse D'Hollander (1968 - 1997). The exhibition highlights five remarkable paintings on cardboard, which are amongst the largest works she ever created. Painted in 1991, the same year D’Hollander graduated from the Hoger Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten, St. Lucas, Ghent, these works have never before been exhibited in the United States. The exhibition will also feature a selection of rare works on canvas and paper.

All of D'Hollander's works reveal an acute understanding of the nuances of composition and color. Her larger body of work is distinguished by its subtle tonalities, depicting variations in scale and surface that give her work its contemplative tranquility, ethereal quality, and brilliant, deceptive simplicity. Indeed, the majority of D'Hollander's paintings on canvas and works on paper are typified by a subdued palette and what might be considered a simplicity of form. By contrast, the early mixed media works on cardboard featured here, which incorporate collage, pencil, oil, acrylic, and ballpoint pen amongst other elements, are defined by a vibrant palette of greens and lively tension of form. In his essential essay, Ilse D'Hollander: early and unknown work, Eric Rinckhout observes that, “Ilse D’Hollander’s paintings are one enormous tension field… Falling somewhere between abstraction and figuration, Ilse D’Hollander’s oeuvre is an accumulation of horizontals, verticals and diagonals, of rotated and tilted surfaces, and of curves and waves. Sometimes these evoke the stillness of a room … and, at others, a mad garden of colours.”

Born in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, in 1968, Ilse D’Hollander graduated from the Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, in 1988, and the Hoger Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten, St Lucas, Ghent, in 1991. During her lifetime, a solo exhibition was held at In Den Bouw, Kalken, in 1996. Posthumous solo exhibitions have been held at cc Binder, Puurs, Belgium (2020); The Arts Club, London (2019); Sean Kelly Gallery, Taipei (2019), Sofie Van De Velde Gallery, Antwerp (2019); Victoria Miro, London (2018); White House Gallery, Leuven (2017); ADAA The Art Show, presented by Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (2017); Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (2016); FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand (2016); Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin (2014); Sofie Van De Velde Gallery, Antwerp (2014); M Museum, Leuven (2013); Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp (2010); Lucas De Bruycker Gallery, Ghent (2004). Her work has been included in the group exhibitions L'Heure bleue, Sofie Van De Velde Gallery, Antwerp (2020); Salon de Peinture, Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (2019), Surface Work, Victoria Miro, London (2018); Edifice, Complex, Visionary, Structure, Sean Kelly, New York (2018); Artemisia, Galerie Albert Baronian, Brussels (2017); In the Picture, Galerie Sofie Van De Velde, Antwerp (2017); Geometric Abstractions, Sofie Van De Velde Gallery, Antwerp (2015); Works on Paper, David Zwirner Gallery, New York (2014); Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf (2013); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium (2009); Stille Schilders, Caermersklooster, Ghent (2003); Aula Art, Ghent (1996); Urmel Gallery, Ghent (1994). Works by Ilse D’Hollander are in collections including Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium, and FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand.

Publications on the artist’s work include Early Works, published by the Estate of Ilse D’Hollander to coincide with the exhibition at White House Gallery, Leuven (2017); Ilse D’Hollander, a catalogue published by FRAC Auvergne to coincide with her solo exhibition in Clermont-Ferrand (2016); Works on Paper published by Hannibal Publishers and The Estate of Ilse D’Hollander (2014); and Untitled, published by The Estate of Ilse D’Hollander to coincide with the solo exhibition of her work at the M Museum, Leuven (2013).

Yau, John. "So Much Achieved by One Artist in So Little Time". Hyperallergic. March 26, 2021

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