16.5 – 30.5.2019.

Bosnian-Herzegovinian public is familiar with Thomas Steyaert as a dancer and choreographer. This exhibition will present him as a painter. His mixed-media work is a playful reflection on power structures and pain caused by violent political and economical systems. The distorted and cartoonish characters in Steyaert’s paintings often represent the obscene behavior of egocentric capitalist figures with a minimum on empathic understanding. The abstract works evolved from a pure fascination with texture, color and different printing techniques. The pieces seen at the exhibition were created with a self-thought technique by using oil paint, acrylic and spray paint on insulating foam boards.

„My education as a dancer and choreographer and many years of stage experience around the world, including numerous encounters with inspiring artists, has led me to a great curiosity and interest in the use, the creation, the aesthetics and the perception of images.

Curiosity slowly grew into small acts of drawing and painting. At first the practice was a side effect of filling the ‘empty space’ in between projects as a performer and choreographer. Another important aspect was that, unlike stage work, a painting does not need a concept description or a justification towards others before or while making it. It’s an individual expression emerging from an exciting dialogue between oneself and different kinds of materials.  As time passed, painting and drawing became more important and by now have become a daily practice in my life.  Materials and surfaces are changing and the fascination for texture and color is still growing. The style varies from abstract figurative and cartoonish to more elaborate and complex abstract works.“

Thomas Steyaert

Biography

Thomas Steyaert is a movement artist and visual artist, born in Belgium. He did several projects with Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus and with the KVS (Royal Flemish Theatre) under the artistic direction of Jan Goossens. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, he often collaborates with Selma Spahić, Nermin Hamzagić, Haris Pašović and Lajla Kaikčija. Together with Raul Maia, one of his close artistic partners, he develops a project that explores the artistic practise and multiple output potentiality of non-representational physical communication between performers. Within the same context he explores his individual approach and created several works in Europe and abroad. Thomas recently founded ‘Moving Island’, a collective of artists based in Sarajevo (BIH) with the focus on social-artistic work. He also teaches, paints and makes music.