Victor Verhelst

Following various ongoing projects with artist Victor Verhelst, PLUS-ONE Gallery is pleased to share a selection of projects and works from the last 2 years, offering a deep-dive into the oeuvre of Verhelst's work.

Tapestry (framed) + Digital token
210 x 130 cm

Installation view & artist protrait, Group exhibition 'Proof of Work, What's at Stake' @ PLUS-ONE Gallery.

“It was just a colour out of space—a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all nature as we know it; from realms whose mere existence stuns the brain and numbs us with the black extra-cosmic gulfs it throws open before our frenzied eyes.”

From ‘The Colour Out of Space’ by H.P. Lovecraft

It is not easy to imagine history and the past other than in black and white. When I think of the past, I see people moving in black and white. I see images of a man on horseback chased by a feathered warrior, of tap-dancing people in suits looking the audience sternly in the eyes with frozen smiles, or of people bathed in sweat singing in front of a microphone and caught in the frame of a CRT television.

Whether it’s a book, a newspaper, a comic, a print of a photograph or whatever, the thought of black and white is almost natural when evoking the past. Another curious fact is that when the night seeks us out, everything between dream and nightmare is just as much black and white. Even more intense is the image of a fire-vomiting volcano delineating the surrounding inhabitants as white solidified appearances against a background of smouldering black. As if the past does not tolerate colour. Colour as a privilege for reality now and the world of imagination. After all, when we imagine, an unbridled range of colours crackles.

Looking at Victor Verhelst’s work, it seems as if the man has never been in contact with black and white. Presumably he was brought up on pink mother’s milk, grew up among colourful wallpaper and to this day he arms himself against a colourless life with wax pastels and coloured pencils. Like a Don Quixote fighting the dark thought that colour might cast a shadow.

Victor Verhelst is already a cult figure of his generation who does not allow himself to be bound by rules and ploys. A graphic designer, illustrator, typographer, risographer, publisher and autonomous artist alike, he effortlessly manages to mash a toxic cocktail out of it where, above all, his obsession with colour dictates law and taste.

Text: Wim Lambrecht, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE

Wool wall tapestry.
Contains a digital twin for the virtual world (NFT).
240 x 240 cm

His characteristic colour combinations create figurative urban landscapes where the coloursevoke an immersive experience like syncopated beats. Moreover, his combinations are uninhibitedlyadopted in both digital and analogue stimuli where the latter seek vocal heights in his signaturerisography and were recently magnified in textile tapestry. His still young oeuvre is rapidly growing,unrelenting, it charms and intoxicates. Without hesitation, Victor welcomes us to the boilerroom where the sculpture turns into techno and the floor is lava. The iris contracts, bloodvessels open and the heart beats faster. There is excitement in the world of Toxic Hawaii,no need to sleep ...

Text: Wim Lambrecht, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE

Pigment print on archival paper (Framed)
Contains a digital twin for the virtual world (NFT)
1 + 1 exhibition copy
195,5 x 110 cm
(*Not produced yet)

Victor Verhelst (°1997, Oostkamp, Belgium), is a visual artist who lives and works in Ghent (BE). Rooted in graphic arts and the craft of textile art, Victor Verhelst’s oeuvre weaves a diverse array of mediums into his autonomous creations. His artistic journey flows seamlessly from the digital realm to the tactual of in the physical world, manifesting in unique Riso prints, voluminous tapestries, and interactive game technology. At the heart of his work lies the ongoing series ‘TRIPPY VEGAS,’ a vibrant, evolving digital cityscape where virtual architecture, human interactions, and imaginative structures merge into a new, surreal fiction. Verhelst’s aesthetic is a dance of distortion and juxtaposition, where 2D and 3D images collide and blend, creating striking figurative compositions. Printed matter - whether digital, 3D, Riso, or textile - explore the delicate relationship between the materiality and the pre-existing digital image, breathing life into the digital depiction and infusing it with a tangible, multi-dimensional presence.

He had a first solo exhibition at PLUS-ONE Gallery in 2022 and participated multiple group exhibitions since then. His work was on view on both national and international art fairs such as; CAN Art Ibiza, Enter Art Fair Copenhagen, Art Düsseldorf, Art Antwerp, Art Brussels, BADAFF Art fair, amoung many others and he collaborated with many big Cultural actors such as; CORE Festival by Tomorrowland, BOZAR, Kunsthal Mechelen, Brugge 20230, FTI Flanders technology Invest and many others.

He has a permentant Art installation at Kunsthal Mechelen and his work is part of the Design Museum Ghent collection. 2 of his work are integrated in the entrance hall of the Belgiam embassy of China in Beijing. Currently he is working on an Art integration for DICTU, the Dutch governmental building for ICT, a big textile pavilion for HACK THE MATERIAL for Designregio Kortrijk & VOKA and in 2025 he will present his first big institutional sized piece for the public.

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Victor Verhelst: TRIPPY VEGAS

Victor Verhelst: TRIPPY VEGAS

Available to buy

Victor Verhelst

Victor Verhelst

“It was just a colour out of space—a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all nature as we know it; from realms whose mere existence stuns the brain and numbs us with the black extra-cosmic gulfs it throws open before our frenzied eyes.”

Available to buy

Victor Verhelst

Victor Verhelst

Victor Verhelst

Victor Verhelst

Victor Verhelst

Victor Verhelst

Available to buy

Victor Verhelst

Victor Verhelst

Victor Verhelst

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