The Painting and its Double

Book published on the occasion of the exhibition The Painting and its Double – La peinture et son double at the Ixelles Museum in 2014.

Between reality and illusion, blurring the fields of creation and perception, Stephan Balleux brings painting and the artist back to the foreground – in an era of digital boom and image overabundance. Through a selection of bewitching works, Stephan Balleux invites you to enter his universe, both singular and yet so familiar. Questioning the status of the image, of painting, of reality, of the limits of representation and perception, the artist opens the doors of a teeming world where aesthetic experience and pure painting dominate. Transversing reality to the games of painting, Stephan Balleux delivers a powerful and fascinating work. Born in 1974 in Brussels, multidisciplinary artist mixing drawing, painting, sculpture and multimedia, Stephan Balleux is without a doubt one of the most talented artists in Belgium today.

Text, interview and exhibition curated by Dominique Païni.