The Creature

Laurent Dupont

01. July until 01. August 2021

Laurent Dupont in cooperation with / in Kooperation mit Chiara Cossu, Sien Custers, Anne Daems, Sara Deraedt, Ellen De Meutter, Arwen Herygers, Femke Ooms, Kyra Rogiers, Judith Schotte, Eillen Sels, Evien Van Rijt, Tibo Vergote, and / und Hannah Willems.

Eröffnung / Opening : Wed / Mi 30. Juni 2021, 15:00 – 21:00, Artist Talk: Tue / Di 27. Juli 2021, 19:00

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Ausstellungsansicht / Installation view, Laurent Dupont – The Creature, Kunstverein Nürnberg, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Laurent Dupont.

Ausstellungsansicht / Installation view, Laurent Dupont – The Creature, Kunstverein Nürnberg, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

Ausstellungsansicht / Installation view, Laurent Dupont – The Creature, Kunstverein Nürnberg, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Laurent Dupont.

The Creature - after Chiara Cossu, „Melancholy Hill“, 2021, oil on canvas, 32x25 cm - 2021. Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Laurent Dupont

Ausstellungsansicht / Installation view, Laurent Dupont – The Creature, Kunstverein Nürnberg, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Laurent Dupont.

The Creature - after Kyra Rogiers, „The Therapist“, 2021, oil on canvas, 32x25 cm – 2021. Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

The Creature - after Hannah Willems, „untitled“, 2021, oil on canvas 32x25 cm - 2021 . Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

The Creature - after Sien Custers, „untitled“, 2021, oil on canvas, 32x25 cm - 2021. Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2021. Courtesy Der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

The Creature - after Eillen Sels, „Poo“, 2021, oil on canvas, 32x25 cm - 2021. Öl auf Leinwand / oil on cavas, 120 x 100 cm, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

The Creature - after Femke Ooms, „untitled“, 2021, oil on canvas, 32x25 cm - 2021. Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

The Creature - after Judith Schotte, „untitled“, 2021, oil on canvas, 32x25 cm - 2021. Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

The Creature - after Evien Van Rijt, „untitled“, 2021, oil on canvas, 25x32 cm - 2021. Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas, 100 x 120 cm, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

The Creature - after Tibo Vergote, „untitled“, 2021, oil on canvas, 32x25 cm - 2021. Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

The Creature - after Arwen Herygers, „Alternative Dolphin“, 2021, oil on canvas, 32x25 cm 2021. Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

The Creature - after Sara Deraedt „untitled“ 2014, oil on canvas, 32x25 cm - 2021. Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, 2021. Courtesy der Künstler / the artist und / and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Photo: Rory Witt

Laurent Dupont’s exhibition „the Creature“ features a body of paintings specifically produced for Kunstverein Nürnberg. These recent works originate from a proposal made to Chiara Cossu, Sien Custers, Arwen Herygers, Femke Ooms, Kyra Rogiers, Judith Schotte, Eillen Sels, Evien Van Rijt, Tibo Vergote, and Hannah Willems, all of whom are currently studying at the painting department of Sint Lucas in Antwerp, Belgium. In March 2021 they were invited to reproduce a painting from a description of an existing work while not having visual access to it. Laurent Dupont and his colleagues Anne Daems and Ellen De Meutter wrote a descriptive template for the reproduction of a painting made by Sara Deraedt in 2014, itself an appropriation of a small b/w-reproduction of a work, later found to be attributable to the French Surrealist Felix Labisse (1905-1982).

Taking on the task to transfigure the text into painting, the resulting interpretations were confronted with Deraedt’s work afterwards, which was brought to the school for a discussion, subsequently to be displayed together for a one-day exhibition in the studio.

In a separate procedure, following Kunstverein Nürnberg’s invitation, Laurent Dupont has asked the workshop’s participants and Deraedt for their permission to adapt these eleven works, effectively copying them after photos he had previously made. Utilizing existing, readily available canvases for the task, each motif – previously oriented on the size of Deraedt’s work – consequently had to be upscaled by a factor of four. By using a projector, Dupont constructed each painting in one sitting, reproducing merely its surface. Each of the titles of Laurent Dupont’s work’s indicate the previous author the motif originates from, it’s original size, as well as the accompanying title given by its interpreter.

Past series by Laurent Dupont include everyday objects painted monochrome, card board boxes – their printed surface colors meticulously covered – or selections of copied, anonymous animal paintings, each reproduced and (re-)sized relative to the animals represented. These operational and procedural tasks, often with subtle shifts, or for the lack of a better word, „ideas“, are stand-ins, that serve as a cause for painting as a practice. Though these operations could be assumed to stand in close proximity to appropriation, this categorization would not entirely do the work justice. Dupont’s practice revolves in cycles that seem to repeat, continuously reworking its own narrow margins.

Laurent Dupont was born 1976 in Liège (BE). His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions, including „A cover up“ at Braunsfelder, Cologne (with Lisa Jo, 2020), „Veranda“ at Gaudel de Stampa, Paris (with Michael Van Den Abeele, 2019), „Cukrovarnická 39, Prag“ at Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna and „Paintings“ at SVIT, Prague (both with Lucy McKenzie, 2015), „Objekte aus Wien“ at Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Vienna (2014) as well as various group shows at Nousmoules / L’etoile endettée (2020), Galerie Bernhard, Zurich (2019), Etablissement d’enface, Brussels (2018), CAC Vilnius (2015), or WIELS, Brussels (2013). Laurent Dupont is currently receiving the support of the flemish Government of Belgium.