About

In her panel paintings, Pascale Valcke (Belgium, 1985) tests the grey areas between figurative and abstract painting. The compositions draw you in with a puzzling familiarity. The forms are natural. But the unnatural appears on the flat surface, like a screen. Valcke conjures objects that look natural but do and cannot exist. The illusion of depth, of light and perspective collides with the visual arsenal of planes, lines and paint that is spread on the panel. The still-life or landscape of the past then dissolves in a chess game, with painterly stakes. We are in the flat plane. Millimetre precision is necessary. The colour palette requires the utmost concentration. The combination of shades of grey, of a carefully-selected pastel colour. The panels can be arranged into different constellations, over and over again. Her works invite you to consider all kinds of combinations, to make these stills move again. And that is how her work slowly grows, like a coral reef. How space opens up. How the panels become an environment. A place where you can live. An expanding universe.

(Kurt De Boodt)