Giel Louws

"The object as mediator"

8-23 July 2023

2023 the first artist that Slipvillan AIR had was the visual artist Giel Louws from the Netherlands. After the AIR period, Slipvillan presented the solo exhibition "The object as a mediator", based on searches and works from Giel Louws during the period of the 19th of June to the 8th of July 2023.

The exhibition was presented by Michel Lee, curator working with the China, Korea and Sven Hedin collections at Östasiatiska Museet in Stockholm.

The work of Giel Louws relies on objects as carrier of meaning and content. His work revolves around the idea of painting, but can take on many forms. Recurring themes are labour, weight, lightness, collecting, and painting. He sees the painting as an object rather than a flat surface, and this often results in installations. Giel is also a collector, mainly of early Chinese ceramics. This has an influence on his work as well. The reverence for objects and their intrinsic beauty and mystery is part of his being and work.

For the residency in Slipvillan Giel Louws looked into the notion posed by the thinker Byung Chul Han that objects help us to understand the world around us. The relation we have with objects is in some ways helpful in how we relate to others, and the world we are facing. Objects we collect as a private person, or as an institution, help us think about how we relate to our surroundings, our history, and maybe the future. In the residency Giel Louws collected objects, stories, and relations and made an installation of those.

The blog of Giel Louws, "Slipvillan Art Residency blog" , gives valuable insight to the project leading up to the exhibition.

Link to the blog >>>

Explore earlier work of Giel Louws in his portfolio >>>

Giel Louws lives in Middelburg and works in Vlissingen in Netherlands. He graduated in 1994 from the Stedelijke Academiein Brugge and in 1998 from the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Kampen.

Giel is an active part of the artist-run initiative galleryRuimte Caesuur.

Slipvillan had an exchange with Ruimte Caesuur 2022 and then had the opportunity to show the project and exhibitionConflux.