Michael Van den Abeele „Dinosaur & Egg”, 2023, Silkscreen on kraft paper, 78.5 x 38.5 cm, Edition of 5, 700 €
Michael Van den Abeele works across a wide range of media, combining abstraction and figuration in his paintings. Imitation, camouflage, and deliberate compositions play a central role in his practice. Repeated motifs, including the dinosaur, appear as artistic projections. As there are no visual records of these animals, each representation belongs to a long tradition of speculative images dating back to the mid-19th century. In his work „Dinosaur & Egg,” the dinosaur becomes a figure that evokes imagination and scientific interpretation. Rather than symbolizing extinction, Van den Abeele sees the dinosaur as an expression of human desire for reconstruction and resurrection.
Michael Van den Abeele (*1974, Belgium) lives and works in Brussels. His work has been shown at Cherry Hill, Cologne; The Wig, Berlin; Stadtgalerie, Bern; FRAC Ile-de-France; MuHKA, Antwerp; Gallery Gaudel de Stampa, Paris; Museum Leuven; and WIELS, Brussels, among others. In 2017, the publication “Forked Apologies” was released, collecting a selection of his texts on art.