Beyond Representation:
Challenges of Contemporary Painting

At the initiative of Intact Cultural Foundation Cluj, curators Maria Rus Bojan and Horea Avram engaged in a dialogue with the Belgian artist Michaël Borremans and gallery owner Frank Demaegd on the role played by figurative painting in shaping the contemporary art discourse, and on the role of the art market and its institutions

Praised for his skills in painting, drawing and film-making, Michaël Borremans is best known for his figurative works that refer to past masters such as Velasquez, Goya, or Manet. Having come to artistic maturity during a time when painting was overwhelmed by post-modern strategies of appropriation, Borremans remained somehow loyal to this artistic strategy, in the way in which he uses the rich historical heritage of realist artistic representation as a subversive tool.

The discussion aims to explore the creative strategies behind the figurative representation, the role played by the human body in defining the image, and the relevance of the “great masters” as models in contemporary art. At the same time, the prospects of figurative painting in today’s art market and institutions were evaluated.

Michaël Borremans is a painter and filmmaker who lives and works in Ghent, Belgium. In 1996 he received his M.F.A. from Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst, Campus St. Lucas, in Ghent. Since 2000 the artist’s work has been represented by Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp and since 2001 by David Zwirner, New York.

Frank Demaegd is the owner of Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium. Among the artists represented by the gallery are: Luc Tuymans, Marlene Dumas, Raoul De Keyser, Dirk Braeckman, Michaël Borremans, Stan Douglas, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Mark Manders.

The event was organized by the Intact Cultural Foundation Cluj with the support of MB Art Agency Amsterdam.

Artists exhibited in the gallery:
Cornel Brudaşcu
Mircea Suciu
Florin Ştefan
Veress Szabolcs
Alin Bozbiciu