Alain Biltereyst (b. 1965, lives and works in Brussels) continually draws attention to the innate beauty of practical designs, such as a manhole cover, fence design or airplane tail logo. Working primarily on thick panels, there is an attention to layering and repetition as well as an affinity for certain motifs of color and shape. Biltereyst salvages gems of color, shape, and placement in our everyday advertising and design, and carefully isolates their forms. The artist tweaks the colors in logos and designs so that the resulting diminutive works operate in the space between a precious object and fragment of the design canon. The carefully chosen scale and brushy, over-painted surfaces draw the viewer in to a beautifully crafted homage to the world of advertising and design that surrounds the artist. Through tile-like panels and larger works, Biltereyst celebrates the parallels between historical abstraction and the commonplace, with an almost reverent approach to his source material, which is treated as a precious find.
Recent solo exhibitions include Leaving the House at Jack Hanley Gallery, Collected Stories at Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Salzburg-Vienna in Salzburg, Austria, How and About What at Hagiwara Projects, Tokyo, Not Just Because at Devening Projects, Chicago, Elsewhere at Loods12, Wetteren, Belgium, Slow, Simple, Sweet at Brand New Gallery, Milan, Dear Everyday at Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona, MORE OR LESS at Galeria Múrias Centeno, Porto, and Geo Land at Jack Hanley Gallery. The artist also participated in The B&W Project #5 at Transmitter, Brooklyn, Form Follows Function? at Art Center Hugo Voeten, Herentals, Belgium, Spaghetti Code at Viewing Room, Los Angeles,The Story Behind: Untitled Compositions at Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona, Street Geometries at Gallerie Van der Mieden, Brussels and Notes at Devening Projects, Chicago. Biltereyst participated in Chaste Paper at Sotheby’s Gallery, New York. Other exhibitions include ON WHITE at Geukens & De Vil Gallery in Antwerp, PLIAGE / FOLD at Gagosian Gallery, Paris, 30/30 CCNOA at A/B/Contemporary, Zurich and Solo at The Secret Kitchen Gallery in Temse, Belgium.