All works of Steve Schepens are entitled HORROR with an additional number or a subtitle. These include videos, performances, installations, graphic works, text based works, paintings and sculptures. For many of his works, used cardboard boxes are the basic construction material.
The HORROR work initially started from the background of painting and the artists' fascination with the development of perspective and its implications on how images generate meaning. In his installations Schepens acts on the limits of historical images, working with different media and building a new perspective. Large site-specific installations are temporary and often form a set for Schepens' live performances amplified by the Belgian metal-band Kru Agre. Others form a set for videos of the artist performing simple (slapstick) actions with a cardboard box over his head. In October 2008 the artist made his first public performance with a cardboard box on his head in Berlin in two exhibitions on the same night (footage of these performances has been destroyed).
In 2009 the exhibition HORROR 14 (De Bond, BE) started with a performance that was closed to public. Schepens called it a ghost-exhibition. Later, parts of the non-public installation and the video from the unseen performance were exhibited in a new installation HORROR 30 (Be-Part, BE). Cardboard from the HORROR 14 installation was used for glow-in-the-dark screen-prints of performance stills. Schepens returned to Bruges and finished HORROR 14 by projecting a video of the HORROR 30 performance on a cluster of plaster casts of cardboard boxes.
In his more recent exhibition HORROR 55 at Van De Weghe Gallery, Antwerp, Steve Schepens created bronze and porcelain objects forming the inside of the cardboard box. Also 2 new installations were presented referring to anti-tank barriers. The peculiarities of the construction make a Czech hedgehog to a barrier, which is impossible to overthrow. Defense-constructions are obviously to be made of solid material, such as metal or wood. Horror 1 is made out of cardboard, Horror 1.1 out of glass, and Horror 1.2 out of TL-lights. Despite of fragile materials and small size in case of Horror 1, the barrier does not fail to prevent a viewer from overcoming it. Either one's respect towards the semantic sign of a barrier as such, or respect for the art in general, prevails over common sense. Anti-tank barriers are very similar to Schepens' Horror fences, both securing a void – either hidden within the parameters of the fence, or behind the barrier of the Czech hedgehog. Both enhance the exposure of the void: the undefined endless space becomes limited, either from one side (the hedgehog), or from all sides (the fence). In case of bronze and porcelain casts of cardboard boxes, the void, the endless interpretational field becomes a solid opaque immanent object. It is an object which does not portray appearance, but content. The Horror fences were recently realized as a stainless steel object.
In the exhibition VIEHL DOLKERS, a new video installation entitled HORROR 59 is shown, it is a mixture of a performance video and a text based work, produced between 2004 and 2010.
Besides his work as a visual artist, Schepens also writes for different art magazines and will publish the New Contemporary Art Guide Berlin in co-authorship with Dr. Ekaterina Rietz-Rakul at Grebennikov Verlag in October 2010.
Previous exhibitions include: BE-PART(BE), De Bond (BE), SMAK Museum (BE), Netwerk (BE); MARTa Museum (DE); Artnews (DE); The Residence Gallery (UK); brot.und spiele gallery (DE), De Brakke Grond (NL), CPAI Lisboa (PT)
Future exhibitions include: Cosmoscow (RU), Baronian-Francey Galerie (BE), Plataforma Revolver (PT), Freies Museum (DE)
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1979 Born in Ghent, Belgium
Lives and works in Berlin
1998–2002
Painting, Master Cum Laude, Academy of Fine Arts Ghent
1995–1998
Fine Arts, Sint-Lucas Ghent
Forthcoming exhibitions + projects
2012
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, Salon of Momentum Galler, Berlin
Who’s afraid of black, yellow and red, BELGIE. popUP contemporary artspace, Berlin
Permanent sculpture for the city of Mechelen 2012
Exhibitions + projects
2011
Liquid Lead, curator Stef Van Bellingen, Brussels
NN, Waxy Pith, Brussels (solo)
The Bermuda triangle is a fraud, Galerie Van De Weghe, Antwerp (solo)
Blue Mussel Binge Drinking, Marianne Friis Gallery, Copenhagen (solo)
HORROR Book + DVD with performances 2002 – 2010
Paper on cardboard, Berlin
Artstrom , Thyssen Manor, curator Henrick Sundström, Berlin
Director and co-founder of Esc art center, Lviv
HORROR 65 artist and curator, Berlinaire, Gent
Untitled, Galerie Van de Weghe, Antwerp
HotSpot Berlin Georg-Kolbe Museum, Berlin
Elective Affinities (duo-exhibition) Freies Museum, Berlin
HORROR 62 (group-exhibition) curator: Astrid David
2010
HORROR 55 Galerie Van De Weghe, Antwerp (solo)
Founder of the curatorial collective APES
VIEHL DOLKERS artist and curator: APES, Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin
HORROR #12 LO10, curator: Els Gryspeerdt
HORROR 1.3 Sun-Light 2010, curator: Christa Vyvey
HORRORCABINET 1 exhibition in Museum Bob Drake collection, Rotterdam
Berlin Contemporary Art book by Dr. Ekaterina Rietz-Rakul and Steve Schepens, ISBN 3941784072
HORROR 56 (duo-exhibition) Galerie Baronian_Francey, Brussels
HORROR 14 (group-exhibition) Schau Fenster, Berlin
2009
HORRORCABINET 1, exhibition in Museum
THE EKARD COLLECTION
HORROR 26 curator Michael Bianco, QNA gallery, San Francisco
HORROR 54, Hamish Morrison Gallery, Berlin
HORROR 58, Artstrom, Thyssen-Bornemisza, curators Mark Gisbourne and Henrick Sundström, Berlin
HORROR 30, BE - Part, Waregem (solo)
HORROR 14 De Bond, Brugge (solo)
HORROR 44 Artist Book, bookdesign Jan Mast and Steve Schepens, publisher De Bond, the city of Bruges in cooperation with BE - Part, the Flemish community and the West-Flemish community
HORROR 32 Brot.undspiele gallery, Berlin (solo)
HORROR 57, curator Jan Van Woensel, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam
HORROR Works ´03 –´09, curated by Galerie Van De Weghe, contemporary art fair Arte Santander, section representing Belgium
HORROR 7, curator Jan Van Woensel, Scalamata Gallery, Biennale di Venezia
THRILLER 1 + HORROR 14, Galerie Van De Weghe, Antwerp
2008
HORROR 46, curator Paco Barragan, ArteLisboa, Lisbon (solo)
HORROR 04.14.08 Performance, Circa art fair, Puerto Rico
HORROR paintings, Space Other gallery, Boston
HORROR 29, Hipodromo 610, Puerto Rico
HORRORCABINET 2, Brot.undspiele gallery, Circa Art Fair 08, Puerto Rico
HORROR Public Appearance Performance, New York (US)
2007
HORROR 27, (H)ART magazine
HORROR 16, Brot.undspiele gallery, Berlin (solo)
HORROR CABINET 1, Brot.undspiele gallery, Scope Art Fair, Miami
HORROR drawings, Brot.undspiele gallery, Berlin
HORROR 18 Brot.undspiele gallery, Scope Art Fair, Basel
2006
HORROR 10 Salon, curator Gery Van Tendeloo, Kortrijk (solo)
HORROR 15, curator Jan Hoet, MARTa Museum, Herford
HORROR 8, curator Paul Lagring, CC Netwerk, Aalst
HORROR 13, Contemporary Art Award Flanders
HORROR 9, curator Philippe Van Cauteren, SMAK
2005
HORROR C21, curator Philippe Van Cauteren, Colonie 21 residency programme – SMAK Ghent (solo)
HORROR 7 ART INFO LOUNGE, Lineart Art Fair, Ghent
HORROR 5 DISORIENTATION, Time Festival, St. Baafsplein, Ghent
HORROR 2 KRAAK 3 FESTIVAL, CC België, Hasselt
HORROR 3 ENTERTAIN_US, curators Tanguy Eeckhout, Alan Quireyns, et.al, Salons of Fine Arts, St. Niklaas
2004
HORROR 1 FASTFORWARD, curator Robin Boone, Helix-vzw, Ghent
HORROR SCIENCE FICTION RUSH, curator: Angelique Campens, Oudenaarde
HORROR #1 + #2 + #3 (the horror-fences) JOY*JOIE*VREUGD, curator: Angelique Campens, Zingem
2003
STRATEGIES, Drongenhofkapel, Ghent (solo)
HORROR#1 + HORRORBANNERS GRAND TOUR, MSK, Ghent
2002
Paintings COMING PEOPLE, curator: Jan Hoet, SMAK, Ghent Paintings OUT, St. Amandsberg, Ghent
2001
Paintings and Drawings – St. Pietersabdij, Ghent (solo)
The Battle for the Strategist , Drawings - Mignon, Ghent (solo)
IN POSITIE with Tim Volckaert, Artifex, Ghent
RESIDENCIES
2009 Sep-Dec
Les Pépinières Européennes, residency Plataforma Revolver/Clube Artes e Ideias, Lisbon (PT)
COLLECTIONS
Van De Weghe gallery (BE)
Hamish Morrison gallery (DE)
Altamira gallery (ES)
Haydée Venegas (Puerto Rico, US)
brot.undspiele gallery (DE)
Galeria 356 (Puerto Rico, US)
Wuyts collection (BE)
Van Den Storme collection (BE)
Roberto J. Nieves collection (Puerto Rico, US)
Bob Drake collection (NL)
Space Other gallery (US)
AWARDS and GRANTS
2009 Flemisch Community Grant (BE); Gyproc (BE)
2008 Nominated Rodenbach foundation Award (BE)
2005 Nominated Award Contemporary Art Flanders (BE)
2004 Knauf Grant (BE)
2003 Flemish Community Grant (BE)
2002 Prix Pipyn (BE) + Prix Horlait–Dapsens (BE)
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