Gert Thierens

The apparition

The Mothership is very pleased to announce 'The apparition', an exhibition of recent paintings by Gert Thierens (1984). It is somewhat of a celebratory homecoming for Gert, who lived in London for years and has recently moved back to Belgium.

The works in the exhibition seem to start from some kind of paradox. In one sense of the word, an apparition is by definition sudden, or at least sudden enough so as not to remain invisible. A UFO, the Holy Virgin, a ghost, a vision: they are known to reveal themselves in a moment of awe. In that sense of the word, painting hardly appears — especially not for Gert, whose figurative works have always been the result of a painstakingly slow and seemingly endless process of experimenting with the materials, techniques and formal language of ‘classical’ painting.

Gert’s painting is simply too slow and too thoughtful for sudden apparitions (although once in a while forms do appear suddenly, and uncontrollably, while painting). It is figurative, but it is also a painting of ideas, in the romantic or spiritual tradition of William Blake. Like a geological formation, it never really stops appearing: it won’t fully materialize, won’t find form, remains perpetually in progress (or gets discarded along the process). Or as Gert would have it: it doesn’t have a clue (yet). And perhaps it shouldn’t, and it is up to us to call them finished for now.

We think they are!


Open on 2.10 (2-10 pm) & 3.10 (2-6 pm)
And, by appointment, from 4.10-10.10 (0479/24.23.61)
Drinks on Saturday from 6 pm onwards!

Artists: Gert Thierens