Room 3

Born in Ghent (Belgium), he is settled in his hometown, but he is currently working as an artist and art teacher in Shanghai. He graduated in sculpture from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, studied one year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tianjin (China) and another at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tbilisi (Georgia) as a postgraduate student. In 2013, Shepherds, his first solo exhibition at the Roberto Polo Gallery, stood out for its original theme, both classical and unique, and a watercolour-on-paper technique combining rigour and imagination. He then presented its direct successor, Hermits & Wrestlers, oil paintings on canvas. Both titles allude to his favourite subject, the male nude struggling to merge with exuberant and boundless nature. He admires Dürer, Cranach the Elder and Paulus Pontius, artists influenced by Michelangelo; Pontius represented parts of the body in such an extreme and unreal way that they acquired a life of their own and became a model for later artists. De Cock copied them to understand Pontius’ anatomical transformations; this learning process required technical rigour to imitate the engraved line. His nudes are symbiotically and symbolically integrated into nature, their anatomy dismembered and often struggling violently with each other.

Born in Schoten (Flanders, Belgium). He lived and worked in Ghent. His work has been divided into three periods: in the early 80s he approached the expressionism of Neue Wilde; At the end of that decade it followed the dominant international trends and in the 90s it evolved into a vigorous and literary style rooted in the Belgian artistic heritage. Together with Philippe Vandenberg, Fik van Gestel and others he is considered a leading representative of New Painting in Belgium. In 1991-2000 he placed himself on the border between the figurative and the non-figurative. In the Magritte tradition, he gives an important role to words; Symbolic words and images often appear in his paintings.

Born in Antwerp (Belgium). He studied at the Royal Academy and combined painting with poetry. In 1968 he took part in a writers’ protest against literary censorship in Belgium. In 1972 he exhibited for the first time at the Zwarte Panter gallery and later began his collaboration with gallery owner Jan Lens (Lens Fine Arts). His books, published by Manteau, his literary collaborations and cover designs for literary magazine Revolver, alternate with his exhibitions: biennials in Sao Paulo, Venice and Seoul; the Isy Brachot gallery in Brussels, 1082 in Paris and others. When Antwerp was the European Capital of Culture (1993), he organised an important exhibition and painted the ceiling of the lobby of the restored Bourla Theatre. The Lippisches Landesmuseum (Detmold) presented Transport (1994-2004), paintings partly inspired by World War II: his parents and other members of his family collaborated in the Resistance against the Nazi invaders, but they were arrested and deported to Mauthausen and Ravensbrück. In 2005 he travelled to Israel to install his triptych Nathan the Wise. In 2010, the Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp invited him to “close” the museum before its remodelling and organised the retrospective Closing time in dialogue with classical artists such as Rubens, Van Eyck, Titian, Cranach and others; in 2012 the Roberto Polo gallery in Brussels inaugurated Closed doors, his first exhibition there. In 2013 he presented Losing Face, a series on Jewish deportees from Belgium to Auschwitz, shown at the Kazerne Museum in Mechelen and then at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre in Moscow. His work can be found in the National Museum of Gdansk, the British Museum, the Museum of Polish Jewish History (Warsaw), the Walsall New Art Gallery and others.

Born in Oisterwijk (Holland). She studied at the Academy of Art and Design in Arnhem and at the Moller Instituut in Tilburg. She creates sculptures, installations, conceptual art and drawings. She represented Holland at the 1995 Venice Biennale. She has received important awards such as the Wilhelminaring for Dutch sculpture (2006) and the Singer Prijs (2009). Her work, the process of which has a marked artisan element (using ceramics, wood, glass, crochet), deals with issues such as growth, fertility, love, friendship, death and the rapid passing of everyday life. Branches, fruits, sunflowers, jars, breasts, seeds and shoes are common motifs in her pieces, which are often showcased outdoors. She regularly works with collaborators, including Nepalese embroiderers and master glassmakers from the Czech Republic. She considers her sculptures to be “tools for feelings”. Her work, included in numerous private collections, has been exhibited in spaces such as the Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, the Croninger Museum and the Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Born in Schoten (Antwerp, Belgium). He studied photography at the Ghent Academy. In 1982 he began his career as a freelance photographer and was one of the founders of the XYZ photo gallery. From 1982 and 1989 he taught at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp and at the School of Decorative Arts in Paris. In 1994 he joined the Magnum agency. In the triptych Trinity (2007) he deals with power and violence in the world; his Congo (2009) reflects the spirit of the country before its independence; with Moments before the flood (2012) he warns of the dangers of global warming: in the series Cuba, the struggle (2015), exhibited in the Roberto Polo gallery (Brussels), he analyses the slow transition from communism to a more capitalist mentality. He has also witnessed the labour camps of Siberia, daily life in India, Russia before and after the fall of the Wall and juvenile delinquency in Flanders. He has received the Arles Festival Book Award (1990), and the W. Eugene Smith (1990) and Kodak (1992) awards. In 2012 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences of Brussels. His work is exhibited in galleries and museums all over the world.

Born in Naples (Italy). Self-taught, in 1968 he met gallery owner Lucio Amelio and critics and artists such as Carlo Alfano and Joseph Beuys, who influenced him. His work focused on the male figure, with few synthetic strokes and a reduced chromatic palette. With drawing, painting and sculpture he explored subjects such as the body, death and the weight of the past. In 1978 he held his first solo exhibition in Gianni Pisani’s studio, which was followed by various exhibitions in Amelio’s gallery. In November 1980, the Irpinia earthquake, which caused significant damage in Naples, added a tragic sense to his creations; he explored the destructive power of nature and collaborated with Amelio in the large exhibition Terrae Motus on the theme of the earthquake, with works by more than 50 prominent international artists. In 1982 he took part in the collective Italian art now: an American perspective (Guggenheim, New York) and in Avanguardia Transavanguardia (Aurelian Walls in Rome). In 1983 he presented his work at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona. In 1998 he exhibited in the Royal Palace of Milan and in 1999 in the Neapolitan Castel Nuovo; in 2000, in the Civic Gallery of Modena; in 2001, in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and in 2013 in the National Museum of Capodimonte.

A figurative realist painter specialising in portraiture, he was born in Walsall (England), he studied at Stafford College of Art and graduated from the University of Central England. In 1995 he exhibited Sayonara Pet at the National Portrait Gallery in London, a series based on workers in the Japanese automobile industry, and won the BP Travel Award. In 1998 he portrayed Tony Benn, a Labour member of the House of Commons. In 2003 he was invited by Andreeva to his gallery in Santa Fe (New Mexico), to explore the region and make portraits of its people–Native Americans, hippies, cowboys and Vietnam veterans–which he exhibited in the US in 2004. His works are regularly exhibited in the annual BP Portrait Award competition. In 2006 he won first prize for his triptych of Kitty Garman, Lucien Freud’s first wife; other awards include the Festival of Japan, the European Painting at the Frissiras Museum in Athens and the Emerson Group (Manchester Academy of Fine Arts). In 2009 he presented Portraits, works inspired by his travels through New Mexico and Tokyo, at Plus One Gallery (London). In 2018 he exhibited at The New Art Gallery in Walsall.