Stijn Cole is a multidisciplinary artist based in Ghent, Belgium. Cole’s practice draws on the relationship between the artist and his position in the landscape. Through a process involving analog and digital art forms, Cole often works with the fluctuating impact of time and light on a specific environment. In combining these altered states of nature in single compositions, Cole speaks of elusive and expansive moments created from subjective points of view.
The relation between the object and its surroundings is central in Stijn Cole’s work. Light, not the medium, is crucial here, since the way we experience color and form is to a great extent determined by the intensity of the light they are subjected to. Stijn Cole is constantly bringing this knowledge into play when creating his installations and other works. He always reduces his images to their purest essence. His choice of media is eclectic: there’s video as well as sculpture, painting and mixed media, photography, and graphics and besides abstract work, he also creates figurative art. And yet his oeuvre demonstrates great coherence.
In Stijn Cole’s universe, themes like time and landscape painting are endowed with a renewed beauty that translates into a contemporary version of impressionism. Each new series of Stijn Cole’s works is connected with a specific period, walk, or journey, which gives it an almost documentary quality. Stijn Cole describes his contribution as modest, just a filter he puts on reality. But with the utmost precision and subtlety, he challenges the viewer to take on an active role. In this manipulative game, he entices the viewer to engage in an experience of intensity, space, and shape that will time and time again prove to be surprising. His newest works increasingly take the shape of installations, landscapes created by Stijn Cole that the audience is invited to wander around in.
Stijn Cole has presented his work in numerous international institutions and is included in the Belgian collections of the BPS22 in Charleroi, the S.M.A.K. and the M.S.K. in Ghent, the Museum of Ixelles and the Belfius Collection in Brussels, among others. In 2017, he was invited for an international residency at Casa Wabi (MX). His work is currently exhibited at Belfius Art Collection in Brussels (BE) and he will participate in the next edition of the Alt.+1000 Photo Festival in the Jura Mountains (CH) in 2023.
“Landscape painting is a well-established genre. Those who may be wondering whether mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, seas and forests still function as sources of inspiration to contemporary artists will undoubtedly respond with a resounding “yes” upon viewing Stijn Cole’s work (°1978, Ghent). Stijn Cole is a versatile artist, who is obsessed with the continuous flow of natural phenomena and its effect on human beings. Cole’s eclectic production of paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and objects reveals his efforts to study and analyse this universal theme. Based on his choice of subject matter, we might be tempted to classify him as a ‘modern-day romantic’ or a ‘contemporary impressionist’, in the best tradition of a Kaspar David Friedrich or a Claude Monet – except for the fact that Cole is not so much interested in the landscape itself as in Colour, Light and Time, the conceptual elements that determine our experience of nature. Depending on the season and the time of day, the landscape takes on different hues from one minute to the next, depending on the intensity of the light it is catching at that exact moment. How do we perceive our natural environment? How is our perception influenced by external circumstances? And, on a more fundamental level, what is time? What is space? Rather than propagating formal beauty, Cole’s works are honing our viewing quality: we closely examine the real or unrealistic scale of objects, his chosen viewpoint, time frame, distance from the subject, the way he selects and frames his subject… The end result compels us to take a fresh look at light, at colour, at the landscape and at our experience of time.”
– Extract from the publication by Jo Coucke and Philippe Van Cauteren, Stijn Cole: Entre terre et mer, 2018
[ARTICLES]
Selected essays:
Selected press:
Belgian Embassy, Washington (US)
S.M.A.K – Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (BE)
MSK – Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent (BE)
Belfius collection, Brussels (BE)
BPS22, Charleroi (BE)
Musée d’Ixelles, Brussels (BE)
Emile Van Doren Museum, Genk (BE)
Collection of the Flemish Parliament, Brussels (BE)
Collection of East Flanders, Ghent (BE)
Gardening the Forest, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
Horizontes, 2022, Galeria Hilario Galguera, Mexico City (MX) / Heart Ego, Monterrey (MX)
Souvenirs, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
Le Weekend, Salon Blanc, Ostende (BE)
Mémoires, Kasteelstraat 1, Watou (BE)
SSTT… Stijn Cole / Stief De Smet , D’Apostrof, Deinze (BE)
Shore, (re)D Gallery, Antwerp (BE)
Variations sur les mêmes thèmes (with Marthe Wéry), BPS22, Charleroi (BE)
Finistère / Fisterra, Haus der kunst St Josef, Solothurn (CH)
Intersections – Stijn Cole / Greet Van Autgaerden, Whitehousegallery, Lovenjoel (BE)
Stijn Cole, Gallery Wenger, Zürich (CH)
Entre terre et mer, (re)D Gallery, Antwerp (BE)
1:1 / Marine, C-Mine, Genk (BE)
1:1, Château de Chimay, Chimay (BE)
60 journées d’été ’76 ’16, Raveelmuseum, Machelen (BE)
New Dialogues, Gallery Wenger, Zürich (CH)
Chimay Cancale, Galerie Van De Weghe, Antwerp (BE)
Halfway, The Italian institute, Brussels (BE)
Lumière Matière, Royal Academy ARBA ESA, Brussels (BE)
October, Gallery René Blouin, Montréal (CA)
IMAGES & COLORS , Gallery Van De Weghe, Antwerp (BE)
30°, Gallery Geukens & De Vil, Knokke (BE)
Von hier bis hier, Kunstverein Schwerte, Schwerte (DE)
Docu, Galerie Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp (BE)
Provincial Prize East Flanders, Caermersklooster, Ghent (BE)
Found footage, Galerie Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp (BE)
Stijn Cole @ Witte Zaal Extra, cur. Rolf Quaghebuer, Witte Zaal, Ghent (BE)
Stijn Cole, cur. Christophe Dejaegere, Scharpoord, Knokke (BE)
Stijn Cole – Koert Declercq, cur. Guy Bovyn, Galerie Kunst-zicht, Ghent (BE)
Willy de Sauter – Stijn Cole, Grusemeyer galerie, Deurle (BE)
Stijn Cole, cur. Philippe Van Cauteren, KunstVerein, Ahlen (DE)
Picture this! – Stijn Cole, cur. Joost Declerq, Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle (BE)
Beyond Horizons, cur. Yolande de Bontridder, Dorotheum, Brussels (BE)
Àmare – Sculpture festival, cur. Gallery Ysebaert, Damme (BE)
Het analytische landschap, Emergent, Veurne (BE)
Shalom Aleikoum. Peace be with you, cur. by Benedicte Goesaert, Showroom Kordekor, Kortrijk
Alt. +1000, Vallée de la Brévine, Le Locle (CH)
Àmare – Sculpture festival, cur. Annelies Ysebaert, Oostkamp,
Belgium (BE)
Stormloop, cur. Tom Liekens, Sint-Waldetrudiskerk, Herentals (BE)
Standing Wave, cur. Mateo Pizarro, Robert Moore and Stephanie Ferguson, CALETA, Mexico (BE)
Time and Tide, Ter Posterie, Roeselare (BE)
Vivarium, JO-HS, Mexico City (MX)
Endgame, Corsini sculpture park, Ostia (IT)
Een boom is meer dan er staat, De egelantier, Otegem (BE)
Memory Shop, Casa Wabi, Puerto escondido (MX)
The intimate consciousness of time, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
Van Eyck in Depth. Friction and harmony through the eye of architects and artists, GUM – Gents Universiteitsmuseum (BE)
La colère de Ludd, BPS22, Charleroi (BE)
Miroirs 3 – De terre et de ciel, cur. Myriam Louyest and Christophe Veys, Parc d’Enghien (BE)
POST TENEBRAS SPERO LVCEM, Galeria Hilario Galguera, Mexico City (MX)
The gulf between, cur. Annelies Naegels & Glen Geerinck, De Warande, Turnhout (BE)
Genesis, cur. Christa Vyvey, LAC Narbonne, Sigean (FR)
De zindering van de zee, cur. Joanna De Vos, De Mesdag Collectie, Den Haag (NL)
Hermetisch zwart, De Mijlpaal, Heusden Zolder (BE)
11tal, Kapel van Maeghdendaele, Brugge (BE)
Works on paper, (re)D. Gallery, Antwerp (BE)
Vriditas, De Mijlpaal, Heusden Zolder (BE)
100 year NICC, cur. Guillaume Bijl, NICC, Antwerp (BE)
De Biënnale van de schilderkunst, cur. Piet Coessens, MDD, Raveelmuseum, Museum Deinze en de Leiestreek (BE)
Celibataire Diva’s, cur. Lut Maris, various locations in Hasselt (BE)
Vloed, cur. Els Wuyts, Ten Bogaerde, Koksijde
El Camino, The way between two points, cur. Christa Vyvey, Kadoc, Leuven (BE)
The tree of life, Galerie de Mijlpaal, Heusden Zolder (BE)
Colors of the sky, Galerie de Mijlpaal, Knokke (BE)
Etage 22, cur. Nils Verkaeren, Antwerp (BE)
Grote Prijs Ernest Albert, De garage, Mechelen (BE)
El Camino, The way between two points, cur. Christa Vyvey, Provinciaal hof, Bruges (BE)
El Camino, The way between two points, cur. Christa Vyvey, LAC Narbonne, Sirgean (FR)
Drawing Front, Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Diepenheim (NL)
A Belgian Politician, Galerie Marion De Cannière, Antwerp (BE)
Splash!, cur. Stef Van Bellingen, Amarant, Antwerp (BE)
Capita Selecta, cur. Monia Warnez, Broelmuseum, Kortrijk (BE)
The Prélude Pathétique, cur. Wim Lambrecht, University library, Leuven (BE)
In Between, cur. Joris Caepenberghs, Castle of Gaasbeek, Brussels (BE)
Festival van de politiek, Flemish Parlement, Brussels (BE)
Stijn Cole – Stefan Peters – Bert Jacobs, cur. Eddie Guldolf, C-Mine, Genk (BE)
Onder de loep, cur. Kristof Reulens, Emile Van Dorenmuseum, Genk (BE)
Façades, cur. Patrick Ronsse and Pieter Vermeulen, Be-Part, Waregem (BE)
Characters makes stories, cur. Sofie Dederen and Mieke Mels, NICC, Antwerp (BE)
ZT, Flanders House, New York (US)
Tender Buttons, cur. Guy Bovyn, Kunst-Zicht, Ghent (BE)
Frans Masereel Revisited, cur. Jan Denys, City museum, Aalst (BE)
Summershow, Galerie Geukens & De Vil, Knokke (BE)
World Wide Wonders, cur. Guy Bovyn, Kunst-Zicht, Ghent (BE)
Kunstwerkstation, Kortrijk, Knokke, Middelkerke, Bruges, … (BE)
Kunst & Zwalm 2007, cur. Netwerk, Zwalm (BE)
Sur La Route / Een tour van Kunstenaars, cur. Frank Maes, S.M.A.K, Ghent (BE)
Het deel., ACEC hal 24, Ghent (BE)
Trends 2006, Sint Barbaracollege, Ghent (BE)
Versus III, cur. Tanguy Eeckhout, Oudenaarde (BE)
Artificial landscape (betoverd bos), cur. Angelique Campens, Aalter (BE)
Basics 2, CROHAPOX, Ghent (BE)
Entertain Us, cur. Tanguy Eeckhout, Salons voor schone kunsten, Sint-Niklaas (BE)
Wat is hedendaagse beeldhouwkunst?, Sint-Lucas, Ghent (BE)
Rush, cur. Angelique Campens, Kapel van Maegdendaele, Oudenaarde (BE)
Stijn Cole/Hannes Vanseveren/Fien Muller 3, cur. Luk Lambrecht, CC Strombeek (BE)
Young Artists, cur. Luk Lambrecht, Witte Zaal, Ghent (BE)
Coming People, cur. Hans Martens, S.M.A.K., Ghent (BE)
Casa Wabi, Oaxaca (MX)
MSK – Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent (BE)
