Rinus Van de Velde (b. 1983, Leuven, Belgium ; lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium)

A Life in a Day (2021–2023)

With A Life in a Day (2021–2023), Belgian artist Rinus Van de Velde continues his exploration of the boundaries between reality, fiction and self-invention. His multidisciplinary practice, spanning drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film and writing, brings autobiographical elements and fictional narratives together within carefully constructed worlds.

A Life in a Day (2021–2023) unfolds as an intimate self-portrait, immersing the viewer in the artist’s internal world. We follow a plein air painter through a tropical jungle and into a swimming pool, before emerging in an underground archive. Constructed as full-scale sets in the artist’s studio, these environments bring together sculpture, architecture and performance, layering the artist’s everyday life, imaginative wanderings and personal archive. Through striking visual compositions and a carefully orchestrated interplay of illusion and artifice, Van de Velde moves seamlessly between disparate realms, inviting us to question what is real, what is constructed, and how narratives shape our understanding of the world.

Solo exhibitions of the artist’s work have been held in international institutions including Abby Kortrijk (2025–2026); Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2024); BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (2022); Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne; FRAC des Pays de la Loire (both 2021); KWM artcentre, Beijing; Bærum Kulturhus, Sandvika (both 2019); S.M.A.K, Ghent (2015, 2008); Kunsthalle São Paulo (2015); Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (2012); and others. His works are held in collections including Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar; Kunstmuseum Den Haag; Kunstmuseum Luzern; S.M.A.K., Ghent; M HKA, Antwerp; FRAC Pays de la Loire, Nantes; KWM Art Center, Beijing; and Collecció SOLO, Madrid, among others.

Galerie Max Hetzler is a global contemporary art gallery representing fifty artists across five spaces in Berlin, Paris, London and Marfa. Established in Stuttgart in 1974, since its inception, the gallery has presented exhibitions of established and emerging contemporary art and its program has continued to evolve with the artists it has been showing since the 1970s. Alongside the exhibitions programme, the gallery has published numerous catalogues, monographs and artist books.