This new exhibition by Pieter Vermeersch comprises three elements, offering a broad insight into his way of working. At first sight, the paintings in the new series look ethereal. They could be seen as continuing in the vein explored by the postwar Color Field artists. They are big enough to envelop the viewer in their chromatic perfection, creating an experience that cannot be put into words.

These paintings enable a reverse depth, they are condensates whose process becomes explicit in another part of the exhibition, where photographs are presented in the middle of big white sheets. These photographs which concentrate the gaze should be viewed as indexes affording access to the processes in Vermeersch’s new large-format paintings.

Pieter Vermeersch photographs the sky, usually at night, sometimes providing information as to the urban context, but without clouds, which might induce an overly narrative quality in the image. These photographs serving as the basis for pictorial work are printed in negative in an attempt to reach another side of reality, so to speak. The ambition is utopian, but like many utopian ideas is an effective motor for art-making.

The colours of these photographs printed in negative escape the artist’s control and give him the freedom to concentrate on the unknown zones of painting. In the “negative” the colour blue switches to a pale, unhealthy orange. These vague, “negative” colours in the photographs are then reproduced in Vermeersch’s new paintings, showing us colour from “the other side of reality.”

Vermeersch does not lose himself in some metaphysical-tinged zone of colour. On the contrary, the titles of the works refer to the “measurable” world: “Untitled (50°54’37” N, 4°24’26” O) 1” and “Untitled (50°54’37” N, 4°24’26” O) 2” demystify the sublime-looking paintings they name by indicating the precise origin and location of the photograph used to make them.

In the photos presented here surrounded by their big white “frames,” we can see subtle figurations of finger marks made with paint, heightening the chemical surface of the photograph.

Image: © Courtesy Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong & Paris