Tom Volkaert Belgian , b. 1989

Overview

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
Tour De Salami #4, 2017
Exhibitions
Art Fairs
Press
Publications
CV

2022

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

Art Rotterdam 2022 - Everyday Gallery, Booth 84, Rotterdam

 

2021      

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

This must be the place - Villa Schoeningen, Potsdam

Mixed pickles 9 - Ruttkowski 68, Munich

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

 

2020

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

Reservoir - 019, Ghent          

Mental - Everyday Gallery, Antwerp

 

2019

XXX - Nevven Gallery, Gothenburg (Solo show)

Cowboys & indians - Kunstpodium T, Tilburg

The House Of Art And Beauty - OHM, Antwerp

I Know You’re Out There - CuratedbyLolita, Paris

Subaked Thirst With Love - ENA Viewing Space, Budapest
In Real Life - Everyday Gallery YYY, Antwerp

De Biennale Van België - Floralienhal, Ghent

            

2018

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

AGGIORNAMENTO - Deborah Bowmann, Brussels (Solo show)

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

Sans Titre 2016 - Paris

Always in the kitchen - Gouvernement, Ghent

The Last Rave - Diesel Project Space, Liege

Castor Projects - London

Make Your Mark - Plus One Gallery, Antwerp

Tasty Breakfast - NH Penthouse Residency, Brussels

Podium Enterprises - Oslo

Art Brussels - Base Alpha Gallery, Brussels

Neighbours - Ghent

Art Rotterdam - Rod Barton, Rotterdam
Stephanie Kelly - Dresden 

 

2017

Dream art fair Basel - online solo presentation

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

ABC Lounge Klub - ABC Klubhuis, Antwerp

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

 

2016     

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

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

 

2015     

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

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

 

2014     

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

 

2013     

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