Matthias Knockaert
Painter
http://www.matthiasknockaert.be/Lives and works in Bruges (BE)
Matthias Knockaert’s selection includes some of his artworks from 2 different periods.
On the one hand, there are his paintings. As a series, they form a visual quest. In these works, Matthias deliberately chooses a particular image that is given shape in a different way, several times. The image is thrown back into a play of compositional lines, color and surface contrasts that creates volume, depth, light and shadow. The brush strokes follow the volumes of the composition. This sometimes makes the image difficult to read. Searching for ways of painting is a strategy for letting go of the original image. By transforming it, the artist owns the subject.
In 2016 there’s a shift in the artist’s work. He starts to focus on sculptural canvases. They are clearly distinct from his earlier oeuvre and are geometrically abstract. In these works, the artist explores the field of tension between painting, sculpture and architecture. This results in small wall objects that take the form of scale models, influenced by architectural components. They are small painterly compositions in space. They are paintings that deny being a painting or, on the contrary, confirm that a painting is not only an illusion but also a concrete material thing.
