Werner Mannaers
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
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WERNER MANNAERS | ARTISTIC CANNIBALISM, BY SAM STEVERLYNCK | AGENDA
1/9/2015
Belgium
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Werner Mannaers | 'Toute la force libertaire de la peinture', by Claude Lorent | La Libre, Arts Libre
12/19/2014
Belgium
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WERNER MANNAERS | EEN ZONDAGSSCHILDER MET CLASSE BY SAM STEVERLYNCK | H ART
12/18/2014
Belgium
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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.
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PAINTING AFTER POSTMODERNISM BELGIUM - USA Curated by Barbara Rose
9/15/2016 - 11/13/2016
Vanderborght & Cinema Galeries | The Underground
Brussels
Belgium
For more information visit: -
WERNER MANNAERS | THE SCENT OF MIMOSA
11/20/2014 - 2/1/2015
Rue Lebeau 8-12
Brussels
Belgium
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Recent Paintings Ceulemans, Gaube, Gilbert, Ghekiere, Mannaers, Moszowski & Vanriet
5/19/2016 - 9/18/2016
Rue Lebeau 8-12
Brussels
Belgium