An Apple for the Road' by Ben Sledsens at Tim Van Laere Gallery

Photo: Divulgação
Tim Van Laere Gallery presents Ben Sledsens' solo exhibition with new paintings that mark a subtle yet significant evolution in his practice. The series emerged from an extensive group of works on paper developed over the past few years as a freer and more intuitive counterpart to his large canvases — a laboratory where unexpected compositions, unusual perspectives, and new motifs emerged before finding their way into painting. The result is an expansion of the pictorial vocabulary: close-ups of water lilies, rhythmic structures of reeds, floating flowers, an anthropomorphic cloud, and mystical landscapes introduce a greater sense of freedom. At the center of the exhibition is a world of small, familiar experiences — a swan gliding on water, a walk in a snowy landscape, a sailboat on a calm sea — moments when time seems to briefly stop. Water functions as a recurring axis: ponds, reflections, and mirrored surfaces as places of stillness and contemplation. The exhibition affirms a belief in the power of beauty not as escapism, but as a way of looking at the world with greater attention.