Roberto Polo Gallery

The Gallery will close for Easter on Sunday, April 16th, 2017;

Werner Mannaers

  • What Hurts Can Be Also True THE Reason i made this

Artist Statement

Art needs painting because it supersedes language. Art is clear and obscure, rational and emotional, direct and metaphorical. It needs air and wind.
One reason I still paint is because of the never-ending challenge of the orthodoxy of Modernism itself. My recent paintings flowed out of me in the most natural way, as though I couldn't finish them quickly enough, maybe because I had found a new “alphabet,” as if some sort of psychological floodgates had been opened.
Art is a mirror. It is inevitably about falseness. My art is whimsical, offhand, not serious, but at the same time deadly sincere. I’m a painter always ambitiously courting failure, but fighting for perfection in every sense of the word, attempting to transform the conventional into the visionary.
My work is restless, teasing, and self-deprecatory. It mines and undermines art history.
Werner Mannaers, 2016

  • WERNER MANNAERS | ARTISTIC CANNIBALISM, BY SAM STEVERLYNCK | AGENDA

    1/9/2015

    Belgium

  • Werner Mannaers | 'Toute la force libertaire de la peinture', by Claude Lorent | La Libre, Arts Libre

    12/19/2014

    Belgium

  • WERNER MANNAERS | EEN ZONDAGSSCHILDER MET CLASSE BY SAM STEVERLYNCK | H ART

    12/18/2014

    Belgium

  • Werner Mannaers | A GENIUS 'BUNGLER' | DeMorgen

    11/15/2014

    Belgium

    Traduction française: UN GÉNIE ‘MALADROIT’ English translation: A GENIUS 'BUNGLER' A GENIUS 'BUNGLER' The Antwerp artist Werner Mannaers (Schoten, 1954) admits that he is a bit of a 'bungler'. Technical perfection and virtuosity are not his goals. When working on colour fields in an abstract painting, he fixes masking tape on the wet paint, so that upon removal, it leaves an imprint and the clean edge is broken in unpredictable ways. His figuration is striking thanks to its only apparently elementary, cartoonish style, overlapped with layers of incongruous words. The artist does not prejudice a seemingly childish and unskilled look. His ostensibly unpolished style gives his eclectic work a visual tension that shocks, grabbing the open-minded viewer by the throat. The complexity of his work brings to mind Walter Swennen, but Mannaers is rawer and more brutal artist. He can edge towards the grotesque and scabrous, evoking American artist Mike Kelley and the humorous playfulness of Dadaist collages. Mannaers also experiments genially. Since he began painting intensively in 1989, he has quoted art history and philosophy. His painting practice now nourishes itself. Mannaers' antagonist imagery is true as a rough diamond. Coarse and rugged, it springs forth daily from his profound, tormented artist's heart. UN GÉNIE ‘MALADROIT’ L’artiste Anversois Werner Mannaers (Schoten, 1954) admet être un brin ‘maladroit’. Il ne recherche pas la perfection technique et la virtuosité. Il colle le ruban adhésif sur la peinture fraîche quand il fait les champs de couleur dans une peinture abstraite de telle façon quelorsqu’il le retire, il laisse une empreinte et la frange est brisée de manières imprévisibles. Sa figuration est frappante grâce à son style caricatural humoristique, semble-t-il élémentaire, surmonté de mots incongrus. L’artiste ne nuit pas à un regard apparemment enfantin et non qualifié. Son style ostensiblement imparfait donne à son travail éclectique une tension visuelle saisissantà la gorge le spectateur à l’esprit ouvert. La complexité de son travail évoque Walter Swennen, mais Mannaers est un artiste plus cru et plus brutal. Il peut tendre vers le grotesque et le scabreux qui pourraient rappeler l’artiste américain Mike Kelley et l’espièglerie chargée d’humour des collages Dadaistes. Mannaers expérimente aussi avec génie. Depuis qu’il a commencé à peindre de façon intensive en 1989, il cite l’histoire de l’art et la philosophie. Sa peinture se nourrit maintenant de façon autonome. L’imagerie antagoniste de Mannaers est comme un diamant à la fois vrai et brut. Rugueuse et robuste, elle jaillit tous les jours de son cœur d’artiste profond et tourmenté.

  • PAINTING AFTER POSTMODERNISM BELGIUM - USA Curated by Barbara Rose


    9/15/2016 - 11/13/2016


    Vanderborght & Cinema Galeries | The Underground
    Brussels
    Belgium


    Werner Mannaers,The Lolita Series (Chapter 9), Septembre 2015, acrylic, oil, charcoal and spray paint on canvas, 200 x 180 cm For more information visit: www.pap.brussels

  • WERNER MANNAERS | THE SCENT OF MIMOSA


    11/20/2014 - 2/1/2015


    Rue Lebeau 8-12
    Brussels
    Belgium


    Passions Privées, 2014, acrylic and oil on canvas, 170 x 120 cm

  • Recent Paintings Ceulemans, Gaube, Gilbert, Ghekiere, Mannaers, Moszowski & Vanriet


    5/19/2016 - 9/18/2016


    Rue Lebeau 8-12
    Brussels
    Belgium


    Joris Ghekiere, untitled, 2016, oil on canvas, 200 x 160 cm