22 November - 20 December 2025
The edition on top of it VOGUE May 2025, two specimen of the Dutch publication, one specimen visible, one unvisible.
to the right PUTTING UP WALLS by Babs Decruyenaere,
to the left GEDACHTEN by Giacomo Leopardi, Owen beneath Leopardi,
The Collected Poems by Wilfred Owen, a New Directions paperback,
beneath Owen OEI a posture volume by Guy Rombouts
and in the morose depth beneath all that, hidden beneath one of above-mentioned volumes, THE FELT HAT, a Joseph Beuys biography,
Picabia provocations,
a pencil,
a notebook
open on a blue ballpoint drawing,
a draft
vana (1957) presents recent works alongside a selection of earlier paintings. The artist works without any photographic point of departure, drawing inspiration from what unfolds on his table. The paintings are anecdotal and autobiographical, shaped by the immediacy of gesture and moment. Each still life layers fragments of language, coffee stains, scraps of paper, and subtle greys, evoking the illusion of piled books and cluttered tables. These muted, timeless works recall artists such as Corot, Vuillard, Soutine, Cézanne, or Corinth.
Painting lies at the heart of vana’s artistic practice—the medium through which his visual language unfolds: intuitive, layered, and deeply connected to the broader conversations that inform his work. Although he is widely known as the artistic director of CROXHAPOX, the non-commercial platform for contemporary art in Ghent (founded in 1990), painting has always remained one of his central pursuits.
Painting lies at the heart of vana’s artistic practice—the medium through which his visual language unfolds: intuitive, layered, and deeply connected to the broader conversations that inform his work. Although he is widely known as the artistic director of CROXHAPOX, the non-commercial platform for contemporary art in Ghent (founded in 1990), painting has always remained one of his central pursuits.
