Designer and artist Gerard Kuijpers connects striking contrasts in a harmonious context in his first solo exhibition in his home town of Mechelen. A paradox which has set the tone for a stripped down presentation of monumental furniture and sculptural objects, which he uses to depict an artistic process spanning 40 years and within which he both looks back and offers a perspective on what is yet to come. 

It’s an overview which - although unavoidably incomplete - provides access to a way of thinking and contemplating, determined by Kuijpers' fondness of pure materiality and driven by an unbridled desire to penetrate the true nature of what has always surrounded us through time. He mainly works with marble and steel, explores the strength and power of wood and glass and occasionally challenges the gravity which he clearly allows to simply be elsewhere.

Exhibition visitors are greeted by a work which strikingly characterises Kuijpers' ingenuity and plainly appeals to the imagination as soon as they enter. A large piece of white marble, supported by a single steel bar, performs a graceful, almost weightless dance once touched. What subsequently follows is a cross-section through an oeuvre which is as elegant as it’s robust, with stately tables and chairs, consoles and blatant connections, which make the structures both visible and legible. Eternity is contained in the stones which took millions of years to form, in the steel’s resolute strength, thoughtfully disputed by the predictable finiteness of the candles and the flowers which act like transient extras. One of the eye-catchers is a monolith, a sacred column in hot rolled steel, which towers high above the rest, recessed in an equally black rock. Only those who truly take their time will notice this involves a cabinet.