Magnetics

Originally trained as a photographer and graphic designer, Belgian artist Michaël Borremans (*1963 in Geraardsbergen) has made a name for himself with absurdly ominous and enigmatic works of art. This publication presents a unique selection of a dozen of his painterly works, accompanied by a revealing text. The artist’s paintings are closely intertwined with his drawings and films; Borremans operates in the border zone between all of the various media. His scenarios are full of references and allusions that afford viewers a variety of possible interpretations while resisting being joined together to form a definitive whole. What are actually mutually exclusive elements, such as realism and fantasy, the ephemeral and the manifest, irony and confusion, are closely interwoven in his visual worlds, and there is only a fine line between a recognizable, everyday reality and a bizarre dream world.

Exhibition schedule: BAWAG Contemporary, Vienna November, 2012–January 20, 2013

Edited by Bawag Contemporary, texts by Christine Kintisch, graphic design by Kim Beirnaert