Since the 60’s Philippe Van Snick has been building a precise, multifaceted and unique body of work. His artistic strategy is based on a self-developed organising principle of colour patterns and numeral systems. The cipher codes (from 0 to 9) in his early conceptual photography created an understanding of daily life and led to the decimal colour system Van Snick has come to be known for. The concept of duality is continuously present in his practice: day-night, gold-silver, positive-negative, blue-black.

Van Snick’s 4th solo exhibition at the gallery titled ‘Paradise and Hell’ evolves around this concept of duality. A combination of new and older paintings and drawings present abstract worlds controlled by fundamental bipolar forces, like day and night and order and chaos. ‘Hell’ stands for ‘closed, blocked, frustrated, agitated’. ‘Paradise’ stands for open ‘clear, satisfying, solution’. The artist experiences this duality both in his daily life as in his working process at the studio. But also on a more universal level Van Snick nds proof for this duality. According to the artist it is the subjective experience of the viewer that de nes what is ‘Hell’ and what is ‘Paradise’.

Painting is at the core of Van Snick’s artistic practice. He paints without obeying the strict principles of the medium and without excluding other media like photography, sculpture and installation. For Van Snick the painted image gains meaning in its relation with the architectural environment and the physical experience of the viewer. This can be witnessed in the exhibition with the inclusion of various monumental drawings. Philippe Van Snick lives and works in Brussels (BE) and has exhibited extensively since the 1960s. Recent solo and duo exhibitions include: ‘Philippe Van Snick’, Hallen Haarlem (NL) & Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (AT), ‘Daniel Steegmann Mangrané & Philippe Van Snick’, cur. Marta Mestre, Casa Modernista, Museu Cidade, Sao Paulo & MAM, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (BR); ’Eviter le Pire’, Arcade, London (UK); ‘Hitting It Off’ with June Crespo, cur. RIVET & P!, P!, New York (USA) and ‘Através do tempo’, Galeria Nuno Centeno, Porto (PT). Recent group exhibitions include: ‘Urgent Conversations: Athens - Antwerp’, EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (GR), ‘From Broodthaers to Braeckman’, cur. Liesbeth Decan, M HKA, Antwerp (BE); ‘The Gap’, cur. Luc Tuymans, M HKA, Antwerp (BE) & Parasol Unit, London (UK); ‘Frequent Long Walks, a proposition by Christopher Green’, Hannah Barry Gallery, London (UK), ‘A Line Is A Line Is A Line’, CC Strombeek, Strombeek-Bever (BE) , ‘The Corner Show’, cur. Wouter Davidts, Phillip Metten and Mihnea Mircan, Extra City, Antwerp (BE); . Van Snick has work in several private & public collections including MoMA, New York (USA), Mu.ZEE, Ostend (BE), Middelheimmuseum, Antwerp (BE), M HKA, Antwerp (BE), S.M.A.K., Ghent (BE), Collection of National Bank of Belgium, Brussels (BE), Belgacom Art Collection, Brussels (BE), Collection Frac Nord Pas de Calais, Duinkerke (FR).

From September 9 Van Snick will be part of ‘Extra-Citizen’, curated by Iliana Fokianaki & Antonia Alampi for Extra City, Antwerp. From September 16 Muhka will present a solo project evolving around Van Snick’s historic installation Ping Pong that he gifted to the museum’s collection. From October until April 2018 Van Snick will present his impressive spatial installation ‘Eilanden’ (Islands), 2016 at the ambitious city project ‘Het vlot. Kunst is (niet) eenzaam / The Raft. Art is (not) Lonely’, curated by Jan Fabre & Joanna De Vos and happening at MuZEE and various locations in Oostende (BE). In 2018 Van Snick will have solo exhibitions at amongst other Galeria Múrias Centeno, Porto & Lisbon (PT) and at Exile Gallery, Berlin (DE).