Tom Volkaert Belgian , b. 1989

Overview
Tom Volkaert

Tom Volkaert’s sculptural work is a testimony to the materiality of memory as much as it is an ongoing tribute to the spiritual and shamanic force of art.

Born in Antwerp in 1989, Volkaert’s sculptural work is a carefully balanced combination of refined artistic craftsmanship and the strategic use of unpredictability that comes into play when working with enameled ceramics, epoxy, or oxidized metal. Many of his works consist of circles on legs, which the artist likes to call steering-wheels. These works are like totems: symbolic and organic artifacts that make present the otherworldly alien life in the cosmos and that put us in touch with something radically different from us. On the edges and inside these circles, contorted arachnoid limbs, intestines, and sickly satanic tongues are carefully arranged and held in suspended animation. It is as if these circles are portals to another cosmic dimension and something wholly other than human life is trying to get through, a lumpy otherworldly and alienated organic gesturing at us in a way that feels both familiar and estranging.

 

But Volkaert’s so-called steering wheels are also a totem for his own life and memories, a way of navigating and coming to terms with his own life. For Volkaert, colors embody memory. Personal memories first of all. And thus, the lived memory of the cinereous cigarette stains on the caput mortuum colored carpet in his parent’s living room is reenacted and relived through the use of these colors in his work. But universal memories too. The usage of umbilical greyish pink and placenta-colored red appeal to a birthing process all of us have gone through; engaging with these colors, Volkaert’s sculptures establish a connection to the matrixial mother in which all creativity is situated, making the viewer receptive to the most intimate and estranging experience of being alive.

 

Conjuring up these contradictory feelings and holding them together is, ultimately, at the core of Volkaert’s artistic practice. Holding together contradictory sensations, his art opens a space where feelings of joy, surprise, wonder, and disgust are enclosed in the same ceramic totem, metal cut-out, or epoxy statue.

Works
FI GRAND PRIX WHEELS & ACCESSORIES (Only Tears of Joy), 2017
Exhibitions
Art Fairs
Press
Publications
CV
Tom Volkaert

Born in 1989 in Antwerp, Belgium

Lives and works in Antwerp

 

2023

Neighbours / Stories Unfold - Zemst, Belgium

At This Height, But Not Yet In Its Fullness - Red Herring Space, Antwerp, Belgium

 

2022

Art Brussels 2022 - Everyday Gallery, Booth E.16, Brussels, Belgium

Art Rotterdam 2022 - Everyday Gallery, Booth 84, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Miart 2022 - Everyday Gallery, Booth E.17, Milan, Italy (Solo booth)

Hardcore Impotence, The Dysfunction Of The Status Quo - Antwerp, Belgium

 

2021      

As slow as possible - Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium (Solo show)

This must be the place - Villa Schoeningen, Potsdam, Germany

Mixed pickles 9 - Ruttkowski 68, Munich, Germany

Mystic may - The Community, Paris, France
SUPERSTUDIO - OHM, Antwerp, Belgium

 

2020

Souvenirs From Belgium - Catbox Contemporary, Ridgewood NY, USA (Solo show)

Reservoir - 019, Ghent, Belgium          

Mental - Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium

 

2019

XXX - Nevven Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden (Solo show)

Cowboys & indians - Kunstpodium T, Tilburg, the Netherlands

The House Of Art And Beauty - OHM, Antwerp, Belgium

I Know You’re Out There - CuratedbyLolita, Paris, France

Subaked Thirst With Love - ENA Viewing Space, duo show with Zsofia Keresztes, Budapest, Hungary
In Real Life - Everyday Gallery YYY, Antwerp, Belgium

De Biennale Van België - Floralienhal, Ghent, Belgium

            

2018

Sometimes you dance alone, sometimes you do a dance with two - Rod Barton, London, United Kingdom (Solo show)

AGGIORNAMENTO - Deborah Bowmann, Brussels (Solo show)

Almost good enough - Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, USA (Solo show)

Sans Titre 2016 - Paris, France

Always in the kitchen - Gouvernement, Ghent, Belgium

The Last Rave - Diesel Project Space, Liège, Belgium

Castor Projects - London, United Kingdom

Make Your Mark - PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium

Tasty Breakfast - NH Penthouse Residency, Brussels, Belgium

Podium Enterprises - Oslo, Norway

Art Brussels - Base Alpha Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

Neighbours - Ghent, Belgium

Art Rotterdam - Rod Barton, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Stephanie Kelly - Dresden, Germany 

 

2017

Dream Art Fair Basel - online solo presentation curated by Rod Barton

Never the same face thrice - Base-Alpha Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium (Solo show)
Cart wheels & accessories - Ciap Hasselt, Belgium (Solo show)

ABC Lounge Klub - ABC Klubhuis, Antwerp, Belgium

Lost & Found - Rod Barton, London, United Kingdom
10 Years Base-Alpha Gallery // Part 1: Artists Of The Gallery - Base-Alpha Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
Case Of Doubt - Pina, Vienna, Austria
Pulsar #1 - Pulsar, Antwerp, Belgium
Art Brussels - Base Alpha Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Indepent - Represented by Art Viewer, Brussels, Belgium
#infiniteflowersplusone - PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
Form Canibalism - The Stable, Waregem, Belgium
Serpent Things Of Light - Yabi, Madrid, Spain
Art Rotterdam - Base Alpha Gallery, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

 

2016     

Cant Fix It, Fuck It - Pulsar, Antwerp, Belgium
5 At Hole Of The Fox - Antwerp, Belgium
Reflector (Nate Lights) - PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
For Granted, Hole Of The Fox - Antwerp, Belgium
Fascinator - 252 CC Ekeren, Belgium
The Super Narrative - In De Ruimte, Belgium
True Believer - The Pony Club Project Space, Belgium
Art In The Park - Beersel, Belgium
For Granted - Hole Of The Fox, Antwerp, Belgium

Ten Dans - Lieven Segers Nodigt Uit, Cc Maasmechelen, Belgium
Paradise Lost - Base-Alpha Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium

 

2015     

Very very very very very very very good times - Hole Of The Fox, Antwerp, Belgium (Solo show)

T.O.O.N - Groepsproject Het Bos, Antwerp, Belgium

 

2014     

I Sang And Thought I Sang Very Well, with Federico Acal - Hole Of The Fox, Antwerp, Belgium
The Poster Show, with Federico Acal, Extra City Vitrine, Antwerp, Belgium

 

2013     

Fortification With Mette Sinke - Le Garage L. Forcalquier, France
Anvers Marseille, with Bram Van Meervelde - Salon 2060 Antwerp, Belgium
Freak_Doggie, Sizzler_007, Paddingtom13, Passoa_Butterfly - Hole Of The Fox, Antwerp, Belgium