It is with a great pleasure that Zeno X announces a new solo exhibition by Michaël Borremans. “The people from the future are not to be trusted” is the artist’s fifth solo exhibition since he joined the gallery in 2000. Borremans is internationally renown for his exceptional artistic talent and the intriguing atmosphere he creates throughout different media, such as painting, drawing and film.

Remarkable for this exhibition are the monumental scale of the paintings and the manner in which he depicts his characters. The central and static positioning of the figures in the pictorial space, as well as the used colour palette create a more distant and a more chilling sphere than before. By stressing the sculptural potential of the figures, the reference to the photographic image fades.

‘The people from the future are not to be trusted’ sang daughter Xenia. A conclusion, warning, phantasms or just an absurd judgment? When he heard those intriguing words, Borremans noticed a connection with his new paintings. His images are generalizing and metaphorical. The time-frame and the space in which the characters act are undefined. The subject is being transformed into an object and every link to the individual is fake. With ‘The Prop’ the relation to reality is even more ambiguous. Here he paints from an image of a constructed imaginary plant made out of cardboard. The work becomes a four-leveled reproduction.

Similar to religious painting, the monumental scale of ‘The Angel’, ‘The Virgin’, ‘Nude with cheese’ & ‘The Missile’ activates the suggestion of a mystery. The static figures transcend their human double. The pose of the figure in ‘Nude with cheese’ reminds us to ‘The birth of Venus’ by Botticelli. When the lump of cheese in her right hand attracts the eye, the aura of Borremans’ nude turns into absurdity. ‘The Virgin’ appropriates her attitude to a sculpture of Maria. The androgenic figure in ‘The Angel’ reposes in her apathetic posture. While gravity manifests itself in the folding of her pink Disney dress, the wall catches her shadow. A more threatening atmosphere is present in ‘The Missile’ where a young girl holds an object which form is something between a church tower and a rocket. With ‘Shitbeard’ we come back to the more intimate scale. We see a man who got a beard of shit smeared on his face. It refers to the type of the martyr. Also in ‘Dead chicken’ an art historical theme has been actualized. The image of a white dead chicken suits the tradition of the vanitas motif. Borremans technique is strongly influenced by old masters such as Diego Velasquez, Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Francisco Goya, Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet. Also the heritage of religious painting and surrealism echoes in his oeuvre.

Borremans work has been collected by major institutions amongst which Dallas Museum of Art, Offentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, Museum of Modern Art of San Francisco, Israël Museum in Jerusalem, Museum of Modern Art MOMA in New York, National Museum of Art in Osaka, Hara Museum in Tokyo, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst S.M.A.K. in Gent, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, UCLA Hammer Museum in LA, Museum of Contemporary Art in LA, Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Beginning January 2014 a new solo exhibition by Michaël Borremans will open at Hara Museum in Tokyo. For his prestigious retrospective at Bozar in Brussels we have to wait until late February 2014. This show will travel to the Tel Aviv Museum in Israël and the Dallas Museum of Art.