Thomas Lerooy
We humans are fallible beings, aware of the briefness of mortal life even as we seek to quicken its pace with questionable choices. We are seduced by our own destruction and inevitably, even attempt to perfect it. How else would one explain the exquisite touch of a cigarette pressed against one’s lips, or the contents of a gigantic champagne bottle coursing through one’s hands?
Such is the concern of Thomas Lerooy, whose immaculately detailed drawings and sculptures betray an uncanny understanding of the weight of human life - a weight that is as insuperable in the face of vice as it is slyly comical in the face of mortality. Like renaissance depictions of saints and martyrs, Lerooy’s sculptures find themselves doomed to wear the consequences of their choices as lasting imagery, long past their finite existence. But Lerooy goes further: Suddenly, his subjects are no longer themselves, but become fragmented and dismembered, literal physicalizations of their shortcomings.
BIOGRAPHY
Born 1981 in Roeselare, Belgium
Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium
Grants
2011
Artist in residence at Kunsthalle Krems, Krems, Austria
2009-2010
Artist in residence at Künstlerhaus Bethaniën, Berlin,Germany
Solo exhibitions
2019
Behind the Curtain, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium
2018
Vanity Fair, Gaasbeek Castle, Gaasbeek, Belgium
Stigter Van Doesburg with Iris Van Dongen, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2017
Playground, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium
2016
I Need you close, Galleri Brandstrup, Oslo, Norway
2015
Beauty in the shadow of the stars, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
2014
Seduction of Destruction, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium Etats d'âmes, Maison particulière, Brussels, Belgium
2012
Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Summer Project, Villa Knokke, Knokke Heist, Belgium
Souvenir, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, France
2011
X&Y, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
2010
The Garden of Exile, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, France
Hole in the sky, Kunsthalle Krems, Austria
Something in between, Künstlerhaus Bethaniën, Berlin, Germany
2009
Braindance, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, France
2007
Infini, Sorry We’re Closed, Brussels, Belgium
2006
Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium
Group Exhibitions
2019
Convexe/Concave: Contemporary art from Belgium, TANK, Shanghai, China
Wondrous Worlds, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin, Germany
2018
Painting still alive, Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun, Poland
CHARIVARI, Pamelekerk, Oudenaarde, Belgium
Nieuw Amsterdams Peil 2nd edition, curated by Joost Declercq and Charlotte Crevits, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
MOMENTUM 18, Ypres, Belgium
Kunstenfestival Watou, Tussen Taal & Beeld/Verzamelde verhalen, Watou, Belgium
Intervention. Raum für Junge Kunst. Sammlung Reydan Weiss. ‘Ohne Etikett fühle ich mich freier…’, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, Germany
WORKFLOW, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
2017
Doing identity, Die Sammlung Reydan Weiss, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum, Germany
Listening To The Form, Panthera, Brussels, Belgium
Ecce Homo, Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp, Belgium
birds, cigarettes, guitars, eyes and trees, rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Anniversary exhibition Galleri Brandstrup 30 years, Oslo, Norway
Fantastic Art in Belgium, Utsunomiya Museum of Art, Utsunomiya; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe; The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
Ecce Homo, Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp, Belgium
Bxl Universel, Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, Paris, France
2016
Recollection-Art & Fashion, Belfius art gallery , Brussels, Belgium
Bxl Universel, La Centrale For Contemporary Art, Brussels, Belgium
Mir Ist Das Leben Lieber. Sammlung Reydan Weiss, Weserburg/Museum Fur moderne kunst, Bremen, Germany
Weird and Wonderful, Los Carpinteros, Ouyang Chun and favourite pieces from the Olbricht Collection, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Tous Belges!, Abbaye St André Centre d’art contemporain, Meymac, France
2015
Glasstress 2015 Gotika, collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale, organised by The State Hermitage Museum and Studio Berengo, curated by Dimitri Ozerkov and Adriano Berengo, Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti and Fondazione Berengo, Venice, Italy
Là où commence le jour, LaM, Lille Métropole Musée d’Art Moderne, d’Art Contemporain et d’Art Brut, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
Give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth - Oscar Wilde, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
2014
Vanitas : Contemporary Reflections on Love and Death from the Collection of Stephane Janssen, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ USA
Addenda, Musée de l’Hôpital Notre-Dame à la Rose, Lessines, Belgium
State of Minds, Maison Particulière, Brussels, Belgium
Résonance(s), Maison particulière, Brussels, Belgium
2013
Là où Commence Le Jour, LAM, Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain de Villeneuve d’Asq, France
Donation Florence et Daniel Guerlain, Centre Pompidou Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
Rien faire et Laisser Rire, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Belgium
Voyages intérieurs, Maison Particulière, Belgium
2012
Methamorphosis : the Transformation of Being, All Visual Arts, London, United Kingdom
Everywhere and nowhere, Villa Jauss, Oberstdorf, Germany
Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Through the Looking Glass, ME-Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany
2011
Mémoires Du Futur, La Collection Olbricht, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France (catalogue)
Summershow, Galerie Gabriel Rolt, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Small, Medium, Large, Donjon De Vez, Vez, France (catalogue)
Bronzes, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin, Germany
Origine(s), La Maison Particulière, Brussels, Belgium
2010
When will they finally see the power of drawing, Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp, Belgium
Lebenslust und Totentanz, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems, Austria
Vanbijdeburen-Belgium (curated by Joost Declercq), Kasteel keukenhof, Lisse, Netherlands (catalogue)
OPEN, Zoya Museum, Modra, Slovakia
Skulls,Skeletons & Bones (curated by Xavier Tricot), Oostende, Belgium (catalogue)
2009
Galerie Im Regierungsviertel/Forgotten Bar Project, Berlin/Belgium
Art in the city, Brussels, Belgium
GALA. 5, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany (catalogue)
Salon du Dessin, Palais de la Bourse, Paris, France
DARK SUMMER, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
2008
Anatomie, Les peaux du Dessin, collection Florence et Daniel Guerlain, FRAC Picardie, Picardie, France (catalogue)
New Media, Stéphane Simoens Contemporary Fine Art, Knokke, Belgium
The flowers of evil still bloom, Cueto Project New York, NY USA (catalogue)
Power to the people (curated by Pierre-Yves Desaive), Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
Poëziezomer Watou 2008 (curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio), Watou, Belgium (catalogue)
Special Opening, Sorry We’re Closed, Brussels, Belgium
Die hände der kunst, Marta Herford, Herford, Germany (catalogue)
The hands of art, S.M.A.K. Ghent, Belgium (catalogue)
2007
The teardrop explodes, Stadtgalerie Schwaz Tirol (curated by Karin Pernegger), Austria
Stranger than paradise (curated by Max Henry), Galerie Charlotte Moser, Genève, Switzerland
Thomas Lerooy & Lucy McKenzie (curated by Tanguy Eeckhout), Be-part Artplatform, Waregem, Belgium
Gegen Den Strich (curated by Christoph Tannert and Valeria Schul te-Fischedick), Künstlerhaus Bethaniën, Berlin, Germany (catalogue)
Art Brussels Projectroom Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
2005
St.Lucas Gallery (curated Filip Luyckx), Art Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
2004
Schabbernak, Netwerk Gallery, Aalst, Belgium
Interface (curated by Helix), Atomium, Brussels, Belgium
Provincial Archeological Museum (curated Stef Van Bellingen), PAM, Ename, Belgium
Projects
2010
Mars op Oostende, PMMK-Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende, Belgium
2009
100 years of Michelin, Musée D’Orsay, Paris, France
Collections
Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Provincie West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Belfius Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium
Ville de Bruxelles, Belgium