Each photograph of Stijn Cole’s “Blueprint” (2024) seascape series combines two images of the same wave, separated by a fraction of a second. The first image is printed in blue monochrome on the back of the frame and the second one, printed on the Plexiglass in black and white, floats a few centimeters in front of it. In this layered perception of the expressive nature of the waves, the viewer’s position determines the work through the small distance between the two images. For this installation, Cole photographed the sea on opposite sides of the Belgian and British coasts. The locations are shown back to back, referring to the physical relationship between the two points of view. On each coast, the artist also took a photograph which serves as the basis for two abstract paintings. These “Colorscapes” (2024) encapsulate lightness and darkness and represent the color palette of a moment deconstructed in 256 shades.

Cole’s multidisciplinary practice draws on the relationship between the artist and his position in the landscape. Through a process involving analog and digital art forms, Cole often works with the fluctuating impact of time and light on a specific environment. In combining these altered states of nature in single compositions, Cole speaks of elusive and expansive moments created from subjective points of view.

Cole has presented his work in numerous international institutions and is included in the Belgian collections of the BPS22 in Charleroi, the S.M.A.K. and the M.S.K. in Ghent, the Museum of Ixelles and the Belfius Collection in Brussels, among others. In 2017, he was invited for an international residency at Casa Wabi (MX). His work is currently exhibited at Belfius Art Collection in Brussels (BE) and he participated in the 2023 edition of the Alt.+1000 Photo Festival in the Jura Mountains (CH).

Since 2017, Irène Laub gallery has featured several generations of Belgian and international artists who are either presented solo to offer an immersion into the heart of their practice, or presented in group exhibitions around themes linked to landscape, architecture and intimate or political identities. The represented artists showcase a wide range of mediums. The gallery is conceived as a space for experimentation, enabling them to test the boundaries of their chosen discipline, by testing the physical nature of the work and its relationship to space, or by exploring the relevance of their creations in the social sphere. The gallery’s program aims to promote a fruitful dialogue between artists, curators and institutions.