10 artists working with uncommon materials

Affordable Art Fair Brussels is opening its doors at the iconic Tour & Taxis from 8 – 12 February 2023. It’s set to be a really exciting edition, with 1,000s of cutting-edge works on offer to happy art hunters. To celebrate the innovation associated with our Brussels fair, we’ve gathered a selection of ten contemporary artists who are known for using uncommon materials in their work.

From the organic surfaces of mulberry silk to the artistic potential of old computer parts, get a taster of the unique practices of the artists that makes this fair a standout event in the arts calendar.

NATURAL MATERIALS – DRIED LEAVES, SEEDS AND WOOL

Gerda Maas | Umanoa

Maas’ delicate, organic visual pieces interconnect dried seeds and leaves from the Elm trees in her hometown of Amsterdam. She takes inspiration from the natural world, whether that be vast starry skies and impressive bird murmurations, or much smaller entities such as human cells or spider webs. Wherever she turns to find influence, Maas manages to find a beautiful connection between the common themes of both humanity and flora. Thus, each piece is completely unique and exists within an exact point in time.

CARDBOARD

Yorick Efira | Art Magna

Efira recreates evocations of the everyday within his sculptural work. Although finished as wall hangings, the 3D nature of the work creates depth as the viewer is invited to travel through the maquette streets of Brussels. He uses cardboard in his impressive creations, as well as found wood pieces and acetate. The result is a range of characterful artworks that demonstrate a love for the architectural design of Brussels.

By taking a close look at his artworks, you’ll soon see the care and detail that is applied. Down to every brick or corrugated roof tile, it’s clear that Efira is a master observer.

OIL PLASTIC

Stefan Gross | Chiefs & Spirits

Stefan Gross apprenticed as a practitioner of stained glass manufacture. During his apprenticeship he was surrounded by coloured glass and learned to think in colour. In 2006, he first developed a material of his own that he now predominantly uses in his work. ‘Oil plastic’ results from dyeing an industrial plastic with classic oil paints. Acting as both surface and paint, it enables Stefan Gross to extend the painted surface three-dimensionally. ‘Oil plastic’ is translucent and behaves, at a relatively low temperature, like glass. In his work, Stefan Gross depicts, in a colourful way, the fall of a society based on growth. “The world is a serious place these days”, he says. “This is a problem I address in my work.” Gross shows the beauty and potential of industrial production.

WOOL AND MULBERRY SILK

Mirrin de Greeff | Art & Lef

At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking these artworks by Mirrin de Greeff are made from stone. In reality, her carefully created, organic-looking pieces are made using the traditional technique of felting. Although she mainly uses wool, Greeff also incorporates other natural fibres and materials, including mulberry silk and linen. We’re always impressed by her ability to turn these soft, forgiving materials into something that appears hard, solid and unyielding. This transition is what inspires Greeff and, through the felting technique, she has found solace in the realisation that her work shapes her own sense of self in the same way that she shapes her materials.

COMPUTER PARTS

Oliver Lannaud | Xin Art Galerie

Olivier Lannaud’s portraits seem torn between the quest for spirituality and the need to consume. He uses recycled and found computer parts in his fascinating practice. With his series ‘Memosaïque’, he revisits the portraits of our ancient and modern mythology. By using computer keyboard keys on the basis of a very old technique, he thus develops a form of pointillism: a sort of ‘object painting’.

COPPER

Sanne Terweij | Rep Ringel Art

Terweij harnesses the power of chemical processes to create her standout, statement-making artworks. By exploring her base of copper through its oxidate properties, she is able to produce mesmerising colours to use in her impressive wall sculptures. After oxidisation takes place, she leaves her copper tiles unpolished, which gives them a raw, earthy texture. Terweij carefully places each tile, often taking us from one vibrant colour and fading into the next with the use of di-, tri- or polyptychs.

RECYCLED MATERIALS

Alessandro Gerull | Winarts Arte

Gerull’s colourful sculptures are all made from found, recycled materials. With a close look, you can start to spot everything from crushed aluminium cans and toothpaste tubes, to vacuum cleaner parts and plastic bottles. He feels an inherent need to repurpose waste items into new, beautiful objects with renewed power. This empathetic approach gives proper character to his creations. The final inspiration for colour comes about whilst he meticulously layers his objects. It’s an impulsive decision that he believes gives soul to the sculptural forms.

CARDBOARD

Toni Alfano | Palma Arte

Toni Alfano’s paintings are made on cardboard covered with a thin layer of concrete. A slow layering of tempera paint recreates the effect of a supposedly repainted wall. The figures are made in charcoal and bitumen glazes. The step of the process is called Descialbo: an ancient restoration technique that means removing the layer of paint from the plaster with a hammer, spatula or scalpel.

CONCRETE AND METAL MESH

Lene Kilde | Bruno Dahl Gallery

Kilde’s concrete and mesh wire sculptures are informed by the emotional interior lives of children, particularly the way this filters into their body language. The way that her wire work seems to fade out into the air suggests that she’s asking us to fill in the blanks of the form and interpret what the figure is feeling.

Having spent time as an artist in residence in Grenada, her work has since been inspired by Grenada’s underwater sculpture park. Her use of these uncommon materials seems related to the experience, being robust, withstanding forms that could stand the test of time and erosion.

BOOKS

Philippine Henry de Frahan | A Posteriori

Frahan is intrigued by giving a second life to books. She sees the merging of physical literary works into a 3D installation or artwork as parallel to the process of authors taking influence from multiple sources to create a new, contemporary literary piece in its own right.

She uses the pages to create movement and energy, splaying them in mainly circular forms to create a swarming, mass-like finish. For Frahan, giving forgotten books a new lease of life takes on the term ‘deliberate upcycling’, which is how she self-describes her unusual, innovative practice.

Make sure to pay a visit to these amazing galleries to have a closer look at the fascinating works that their artists are creating. And don’t forget to buy tickets now in order to visit Affordable Art Fair Brussels from 8 – 12 February at Tour & Taxis. It’s going to be a great edition and we can’t wait to see you there!

Main image: Stefan Gross, ‘Pink Remains’, 2022, 230cm x 200cm x 180cm, Chief and Spirits