General — 2019

Arne Quinze keeps on contesting the greyness and dullness of the environments we live in.

After many new installations and exhibitions in Mumbai, Paris and Knokke during the past year, 2019 is again extremely busy for Arne Quinze. Three major openings were scheduled for February: an open-air sculpture exhibition in Valencia, an exhibition in Gstaad in Switzerland, and an exhibition in Brussels.

The City of Arts & Sciences site in Valencia, for example, receives 2 million visitors annually. This means that almost 5,500 people walk past the sculptures on the Paseo del Arte every day. This architectural and cultural complex is one of the 12 “treasures of Spain”, was designed by Santiago Calatrava, and opened to the general public in 1998. It is without any doubt the biggest tourist attraction in Valencia and far beyond. Arne Quinze is one of the few artists in the world lucky enough to have been given the honour of exhibiting at this exceptional location and has installed his Natural Chaos sculptures there. The exhibition is still running until October 13th 2019.

Next, the Patricia Low Gallery in Gstaad is very popular in the art world. This Alpine town is not that big, with only 9000 inhabitants, but on average it has perhaps the highest number of art collectors per capita. With previous exhibitions by Damien Hirst, Peter Halley, Erik Parker, John Chamberlain and others, we can consider this a very exclusive solo show for Arne Quinze. Be quick, this exposition ends this Summer!

From the 21st of February until the 13th of April, Arne Quinze has also been exhibiting at his own gallery, Maruani & Mercier in Brussels. Since its launch in 1995, the gallery has been focusing on American artists such as Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Gavin Turk, Peter Halley, etc. But in 2017, Arne Quinze was the first Belgian to become one of the resident artists that the gallery represents through its branches in Knokke, Brussels and Paris. For his home audience, Arne Quinze showed a series of new Lupine sculptures and a masterfully painted 12-panel work called “The Twelve Months”.

On receiving these opportunities, Arne Quinze found it important to exhibit new work. This ambition was translated into an enormously busy work schedule, whereby in recent months the artist has been creating almost 24/7. The result is hugely gratifying: we are witnessing the creation of three completely new series of artworks. He has succeeded in completing the preparations with the help of a whole team. The overwhelming reactions after the first press conferences may give a hint of the new advances in Arne Quinze’ career in 2019. Inspired by nature and outraged by our disrespectful treatment of it, in 2019 he will with his creations continue to contest the greyness and dullness of the environments we live in.