Publications CV & contact
Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, 2025
exhibition view
The works of Leon Vranken (°1975, Maaseik, BE) originate from everyday findings and materials—elements and constellations he notices on the street or in daily life—which, once in his studio, are given a new logic. Each work stands on its own, yet follows a recognizable method: a carefully chosen object or material is altered, perforated, doubled, displaced—until it seems to have reinvented itself. Always with a layer of ambiguity, as if unwilling to reveal its secrets.
Several works in this exhibition move along the boundary between painting and object. Within the gallery context, they adjust themselves to the scale of the space. They appear quiet and modest, at first sight an illusion of painting, but it is the material reality that Vranken foregrounds. In his compositions he uses materials such as textiles—recovered from old awnings—roof rubber, canvas: not noble supports, but banal fragments of the public space—grids, chains, leftover forms of urban infrastructure. Weightless objects that, once removed from their environment, reveal a new sensitivity.
A work like The Beggar (2025), constructed from a reclaimed awning and wooden substructure, shows how Vranken plays with recognition and estrangement. It evokes something between domesticity and corporeality, yet it is completely unusable. This is the poetry of his sculptural thinking: he creates objects that behave like images, and images that masquerade as things.
Beneath his strict formal language lies a human fascination—the urge to make, to produce, to consume. Often regarded as a flaw, Vranken reveals the beauty of this impulse: a problem-solving (even doomsday) way of thinking that can lead to unexpected inventions. Every gesture, no matter how small, echoes our broader relationship with abundance and scarcity. In Vranken’s world, craftsmanship becomes something essential: an exercise in attention, in slowness. The refined way of working stands in sharp contrast to overproduction. Every detail testifies to craftsmanship and control: the wooden frames are handmade according to the rules of art, nuts and fruits cast and painted, a paper plate recreated in painter’s canvas. These are not ready-mades. Where Duchamp took the object from the world and elevated it to art through context, Vranken remakes the object—and then treats it as if it were never made by a sculptor at all. His self-made ready-mades become links in larger sculptural assemblages. Here lies the tension—between the artificial and the sincere—forming the core of Vranken’s work. What you see is a quiet form of admiration: for the material, for the act, and for the slowness through which meaning unfolds.
His work revalues what is usually touched or discarded thoughtlessly, showing that meaning can also arise through repetition, not only through innovation.
Text by Astrid Vereycken
The beggar, 2025
awning textile, mdf, acrylic
200 x 90 x 54 cm
awning textile, mdf, acrylic
200 x 90 x 54 cm
Cushion (I), 2025
woven roofing, wood, foam
73 x 61 x 18 cm
woven roofing, wood, foam
73 x 61 x 18 cm
detail
Untitled, 2025
rope, steel, washers, wood, rubber, stainless steel
various dimensions
rope, steel, washers, wood, rubber, stainless steel
various dimensions
Painting after painting, 2025
pressed canvas, mdf, acrylic, plexi cover
41 x 30,6 x 4 cm
pressed canvas, mdf, acrylic, plexi cover
41 x 30,6 x 4 cm
Peanuts, 2025
plaster, solid wood
41 x 33 x 4 cm
plaster, solid wood
41 x 33 x 4 cm
exhibition view
Harvest, 2025
pressed canvas, acrylic, plaster, steel, mdf
127 x 127 x 8 cm
pressed canvas, acrylic, plaster, steel, mdf
127 x 127 x 8 cm
Still life on canvas, 2025
awning textile, acrylic, pressed canvas, plaster, solid wood
55 x 39 x 4 cm
awning textile, acrylic, pressed canvas, plaster, solid wood
55 x 39 x 4 cm