Jelle Spruyt works with textiles in a traditional way and combines in his sculptural work everyday objects with global manifestations of the handling of botanical raw materials and floral phenomena: germination, growth, flowering, wilting and decay. In a symbolic and aesthetically way, he thereby contributes to awareness about the handling of the environment. Through the manual elaboration of his sculptural imagery and use of colour, his work takes on an imaginary form of expression in an alienating aesthetic. Spruyt uses textiles as a contemporary medium with a rich, multicultural history from which he draws as if it were a library or archive. For him, it is a source that feeds him during his travels around the world, allowing him to translate his impressions into painterly, spatial works that show strong cohesion in their individual quality.

For both artists, their ideational imagery is an outcome of free use of materials in the language of form employed. The content of their work thus acquires an independent and autonomous character without emphatically conveying a moral message as if. With their work, they offer the possibility of thinking outside one’s own norm. Bernice Nauta’s paintings and Jelle Spruyt’s sculptures set in motion a train of thought for which you yourself are responsible as viewer.

PRESENTATION EDITION — Jelle Spruyt
On the occasion of this presentation, Jelle Spruyt created a special edition of the “Bottle Apron. Made of digitally printed cotton, it is intended for a champagne bottle, which can thus provide laughter and conversation not only for its contents but also for its jacket.