Pieter Jennes

Pieter Jennes’ art is narrative in nature and his means of expression—richly colored surfaces and dense motifs in particular—are akin to illustration. The style of his work, refined by historical references to the flat perspectives of Islamic miniatures for example, or the satirical aspects of Weimar-era artists such as Georg Grosz as well as the face-to-face aspect of theatre, lend his painting a profoundly idealistic slant. The world he depicts, is set at the crossroads of the everyday and the dreamlike, a fundamentally familiar setting where dreams branch off from the ordinary. His creatures, both human and animal, still or in movement, set in landscapes that are reduced to a patchwork of patterns and textures are imbued with a variety of human emotions that range from the simplest to the most complex. Love melancholy, desire, fear… The primacy of somatic feeling is essential in Pieter Jennes’ work both in the highly tactile visual dimension of the artworks and in the moments of contact between the living beings he represents.

Born in 1990 in Mortsel, Belgium, Pieter Jennes lives and works in Antwerp. He studied painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, as well as curatorial studies at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts & University of Gent. He has exhibited work in numerous galleries—Nino Mier Gallery (New York / Los Angeles), the Sofie Van de Velde Gallery (Antwerp), the Vacancy Gallery (Shanghai / Seoul), the PUBLIC Gallery (London)—as well as at art fairs both in Belgium and on the international stage.