Leen Voet

With a subtle sense of humour, Leen Voet incorporates elements from cultural, personal and historical contexts into series of paintings which she then converges into installations in space. At M, she is showing several of these series for the first time. She takes a voyeuristic perspective on life, painting and artistry and reflects on the stereotypical and local, on the autonomy of the individual and on origins and provenance.

Leen Voet (born 1971) lives and works in Brussels.

She had solo exhibitions at Netwerk Aalst (1997 and 2013), Villa Arson (Nice, 2002), The Living Art Museum (Reykjavík, 2005), CIAP (Hasselt, 2006 and 2018), Etablissement d’en Face (Brussels, 2006), FeliXart Museum (Drogenbos, 2010), trampoline (Antwerp, 2014 and 2016), Kunstbunker Forum für Zeitgenössische Kunst (Neurenberg, 2016) en Baronian (Brussels, 2018, 2019 and 2022).

Leen Voet participated in group exhibitions at Zoersel ’96 (Zoersel, 1996), W139 (Amsterdam, 1999), Netwerk Aalst (2000 and 2003), Bozar (Brussels, 2003), De Garage (Mechelen, 2008), Ausstellungsraum Klingental (Basel, 2010), Etablissement d’en Face (Brussels, 2012), Broadcast Gallery (Dublin, 2013), Wiels (Brussels, 2015), Museum Dr. Guislain (Ghent, 2016), La Loge (Brussels, 2018), Frans Masereel Centrum (Kasterlee, 2019) en M HKA (Antwerp, 2019).

Leen Voet’s subjects set us thinking about power structures, social structures and artistry, including the family, autonomy, religion and the teacher-pupil relationship. Moreover, each series emanates from its own logic, from precepts or rules, which lead to variations and new decisions. Her works ask us to consider our affective bond with the things that surround us. What role do context and expectation play? How do we look at images?

Installation view ‘Pauls kamerscherm’ & ‘Bernards attributen’, Leen Voet, 2023, M Leuven, photo: © Kristien Daem for M Leuven

Installation view ‘Sint-Rita’, Leen Voet, 2023, M Leuven, photo: © Kristien Daem for M Leuven

Installation view ‘Leen Voet’, 2023, M Leuven, photo: © Kristien Daem for M Leuven

Installation view ‘Bert Van Dael’, Leen Voet, 2023, M Leuven, photo: © Kristien Daem for M Leuven

Installation view ‘Je Fais Ce Que Je Veux’, Leen Voet, 2023, M Leuven, photo: © Kristien Daem for M Leuven

Installation view ‘Bernard, Paul & Constant’, Leen Voet, 2023, M Leuven, photo: © Kristien Daem for M Leuven

Leen Voet’s paintings are a cross between figuration and abstraction, with vivid colours and geometric shapes coming together in a balanced composition. While each painting can stand alone, it is enriched with additional meanings by its place in the series. Throughout each series, Leen Voet explores variations and other painting styles or she plays with plurality, the copy and the unique. The spatial arrangement and how the works relate to each other strengthen their bond and their individuality.

Detail ‘Bernard Jos’, Leen Voet, 2022, M Leuven, photo: © Kristien Daem for M Leuven

‘Sint-Alena’, Leen Voet, 2012-2013 © M Leuven, photo: © Kristien Daem for M Leuven

By presenting several series of paintings and drawings, this exhibition provides a cross-section of the artist’s visual output of the last 15 years. For M, Leen Voet has also made a new series, based on three paintings of artists’ studios in the M collection.

Published in conjunction with this exhibition is the first monograph (Dutch/English) on the work of Leen Voet, entitled 'For all the Cats in the World'. The book, published by Ludion and M, is extensively illustrated, with an essay by Martin Germann, and a conversation between the artist and Eva Wittocx. Available at Barbóék in M.

Curator: Eva Wittocx

During your visit

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Day			Time slot
Monday:	11:00-18:00
Tuesday:	11:00-18:00
Wednesday:	Closed
Thursday:	11:00-22:00
Friday:	11:00-18:00
Saturday:	11:00-18:00
Sunday:	11:00-18:00

Day			Time slot
Monday:	10:00-16:30
Tuesday:	10:00-16:30
Wednesday:	Closed
Thursday:	10:00-16:30
Friday:	10:00-16:30
Saturday:	10:00-16:30
Sunday:	11:00-16:30

Leen Voet

During your visit

Leen Voet at M

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