Far Above The Moon 

Henrik Eiben, Nathalie Junod Ponsard, Michel Leonardi​​

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The exploration of space, light and colour has been central to artistic creation in many ways. Deeply impressed by Kubrick’s groundbreaking science fiction movie Space Odyssey, David Bowie transformed himself into Major Tom, “floating in a most peculiar way” through the universe. This exhibition, whose title is a reference to his intriguing song Space Oddity, brings together three outstanding artists whose creations evoke similar feelings to us. In their inimitable personal styles, they create minimal art works playing with our perception of forms, materials and colour nuances in either two or three dimensions. The juxtaposition of their recent sculptures and paintings in the gallery space adds an additional dimension, for the great pleasure of the careful observer.
Henrik Eiben, born 1975, lives and works in Hamburg. He creates multifaceted art works full of deliberate contradictions. Influenced by American minimalism, his sculptures, drawings and installations evolve around a reduced vocabulary of geometric shapes. Their composition is not derived from mathematical systems but develops intuitively. For his sculptures, like the brand new “Birds” series, shown here for the first time in Belgium, he works with unorthodox materials, mixing fabrics, from fake leather to cashmere felts or knitted wool, with construction materials. For his works on paper, he also employs a variety of techniques, such as watercolor, ink and oil stick, sometime even smaller objects. The interaction between different mediums and contrasting colour schemes provides him with artistic freedom resulting in exceptionally engaging art works.
Nathalie Junod Ponsard, born 1961, lives and works in Paris. She develops large luminous installations modifying the density of spaces and unsettling our visual capacities. Her works, often in unusual locations, such as the Athletes Village of the 2024 Olympics and the Elysée Palace in Paris, fill the space with pure and saturated wavelengths, troubling our senses and triggering a physiological modification of our perceptual markers. Scientific experiments have led her to explore the influence of light on biological systems, testing the limits of perception and the psychotropic effects of light. This exhibition features two recent series of wall sculptures using the same transparent foil as in some of her large installations, generating alluring color effects when exposed to natural or artificial light. Her LED illuminated “Halo” glass works, also shown here, give us a good impression of the magical effect triggered by her large outdoor installations.
Michel Leonardi, born 1951, lives and works in Liège. His work develops a line of thought inspired by the German painter Hermann Amann, who was leader of the movement "Nouvelle Pigmentation", seeking to penetrate the energy of colour. Leonardi joined this movement in 1986 and has remained attached to it throughout his career, up to the present. His work is a dialogue between colour and light, organic painting and geometric abstraction. He has also created many large-scale and highly recognizable installations and interventions in the public space, mainly in Liège and Luxembourg. Recently he was invited to several residencies in China which have led to large scale exhibitions of his work. This exhibition presents several recent sculptures developed in close connection with his paintings, using plexiglass, sometimes combined with wooden readymades.

Text: Robert Klotz