In keeping with an annual tradition, S.M.A.K. will again be holding the group exhibition Coming People, focusing on the graduation projects of students from the Royal Academy of Fine Art Ghent (KASK) and St. Luke’s College of Science and Art, Art campus in Ghent.
This year, it was the curators Denis Gielen (MAC’s, Grand-Hornu) and Thibaut Verhoeven (S.M.A.K., Ghent) who made a selection from the final-year presentations. They made their choices ‘blind’ and independently of each other in order to be as objective as possible in their assessment. The two selections were then put side by side and merged together. The exhibition was given the subtitle L’Humilité des choses, the humility of things. This is because the curators noted a striking number of similarities between the six artists selected. Their work took shape without pretension, in terms of material, content and subject. Their modest attitude was significant and also pointed the way to the title. The title also refers to the actual presentation of the individual works themselves. After all, one of the ‘dangers’ of showing early work in a museum is that it has to stand up to the dominating weight of the museum space. Which is why the option was to give the Coming People exhibition a modest place in the museum, not only in terms of form and content, but spatially too. A sheltered space, where the works and the artists and all their youthful qualities can thrive in peace and from where they can stroll into the world of professional contemporary art at their own tempo.
With works by: Laurent Mignon, Ruben Peeters, Olivia Rochette & Gerard-Jan Claes, Elisabeth Sri Unggul Ida Mulyani, Annouk Thys and Sander Van Raemdonck
With thanks to: KASK Sint-Lucas
