Jan Vanriet : The Music Boy

29 Jan-8 May 2016

Overview

The exhibition brings 30 paintings. The title refers to The Music Boy, a polyptych of four paintings depicting his grandmother and uncle - his mother's twin brother - playing accordion as a boy before the war.Jan Vanriet is a hugely influential painter and poet from Belgium. Jan has exhibited widely across the world, representing his country in the biennials of Sao Paolo, Venice and Seoul yet this is his first exhibition in the UK. Much of his work is rooted in his family history. His parents met in the Mauthausen concentration camp and their stories and memories of the Second World War and its aftermath continues to influence his paintings. Themes of love, loss, identity, destiny and disappearance pervade his work. Yet there is also an inherent playfulness and lightness of touch and an evident mastery of the medium of paint.