LIESBETH VAN HEUVERSWIJN

Drawing is a kind of game where every little accident can be interesting.

From intimate square formats, to medium-sized and large vertical drawings mounted on aluminum, all are of graphite pencil on paper. Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn builds these compositions layers upon layers - the artist superimposes rich graphite coats, erasing sometimes up to the whole composition, and building over again. This technique results in dense and complex surfaces, both polished and sturdy from the graphite. Erasing allows for a movement, a rhythm, relished in itself by Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn, but it also gives way to new textures and new patterns, showcasing the artists’ back-and-forth motion as stratums or as eroded.

The metallic rendering of the graphite is remarkable against the curves of Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn’s forms. Although ‘charged’ with dense patterns of symmetrical lines, the organic forms are flattened, almost pressed onto the paper. The exhibition is a tribute, as expressed in its title, to the systematic organization of natural sciences. Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn’s starting point often stems from a flora encyclopedia, inspired by its categorization and standardized visual language. Plants are registered and presented as structures – schematic and pattern-like, these natural species are like stencils. For Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn, drawing is also about the organization of things (collections of forms, repetitions, outlines) on paper. And thus, her drawings bare a certain omnipresent grid, geometrically structured. Alike stamps or even architectural renderings, Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn’s drawings emerge in the duality between their formal and living qualities.

The tradition of the gray pencil, deep and timeless, retains its secrets within the drawings’ layers. At the same time, Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn likes the simplicity of the medium. Evoking overcast prints, almost etching-like, the work has inklings of industrial properties while retaining elegant hand-drawn characteristics. It is perhaps in this relationship that Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn’s work comes to life. Like strings or like incisions, each line seems to have been drafted in perfect composure. Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn’s drawings are strict – and yet the artist’s hand is light, compositions are generous with their leftover pencil lines, and their attention to coincidences. Her work is in itself a system where formations, figuration and grids manifest with wonder, nuance and adroitness.

Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn. Born in 1989. Lives and works near Ghent.

Solo shows: 2023 Grass Whistle (with Thomas Mazzarella), Rossicontemporary, Brussels ; Spiegels op water, Experimental Intermedia, Ghent 2021 A deux le jeu-hard glas hoge bomen, Nucleo, Ghent 2020 For the Marvelous Organization of Living Things, Rossicontemporary, Brussels

Group shows: 2023 A4 a wall, Vroom Space, Brussels; Zomersalon, Kunsthal, Ghent ; Het huilende huis, Rufus Gallery, Ghent ; De grote vogelshow, Pizza Gallery, Antwerp ; Kompas, Zebra Culture, Ghent ; Main Flour Ravage, A home to be, Antwerp 2022 Salon Blanc 43, Salon Blanc, Ostend ; Curtain Cabaret, a sequential exhibition, Vroom Space, Brussels ; An invitation from Mildred, Ghent ; Loss kunstenfestival, Stedelijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten, Zottegem ; Tout de retour, Blanco, Ghent 2021 Drop in- drop out, Ontsteking, Ghent; Nuages d’hier et d’aujourdhui, La Maison des Arts, Schaerbeek ; Zomersalon, Kunsthal Ghent ; A deux le jeu - hard glad hoge bomen, Blanco, Ghent 2020 404 Page not found, Kunstenhuis, Harelbeke ; Stimulans, Paardestallen, Kortrijk ; Tekenen in lockdown, SMAK 2019 Ronse drawing prize, CC de Ververij, Ronse

Prizes: 2019 Selected for the Ronse drawing prize, CC de ververij, Ronse

Public collections: Frans Masereelcentrum, Kasterlee

Publications: 2021 Visiting Cards, Pleasure Island ; A deux le jeu- Een gelijkspel tussen Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn en Jana Van Ongevalle, Retour publicaties 2020 Postpublicatie #3, Retour publicaties

Residencies: 2023 Experimental Intermedia, Ghent 2022 Frans Masereelcentrum, Kasterlee

Bibliography: 2022 Beeld, De keuze van Lukas Verstraete, Kunstletters #19, oktober-december 2022, p. 14-15 ; Vijftig jaar Frans Masereel Centrum, Het Belang van tijd, OKV, jaargang 60, nummer 4, 2022 ; The Drawing Stall Vol.I, edited by Casey Jex Smith, 2022 ; Tekeningen van kinderen met naam/ Dessins d’enfants signés, by Liesbeth Feys and Pleasure Island 2022 ; 2020 Aliénor Debrocq, Trois solos d’été chez Rossi, Le Soir, June 24 2020, p. 23 ; Roger Pierre Turine, Les dessins poétiques de Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn, La Libre Belgique, July 1, 2020