WIM LEGRAND
b. 1978 - Antwerp, Belgium
Wim Legrand’s work offers a playful take on the paradoxical strangeness of everyday reality, while commenting on our postmodern condition as victims to the barrage of information and news feeds. Mundane and forgettable objects usher the familiar into peculiar allegorical narratives, where past blurs with present and fact with fiction – setting scenes in a liminal zone, in the unfettered “now” of a dream, meanings just out of reach and continually open to interpretation. He combines painting with drawing, cartoons and pop culture with aesthetic references to North European history painting and Surrealist traditions – the post-modern world overlaid onto the art historical atmosphere in which he was raised. To date, Legrand has held solo shows in Belgium and South Africa and has participated in numerous group exhibitions across the globe. His most recent accolades include a group exhibition in Shanghai and his first solo in The Netherlands.
Select Press
Behind the artwork | Wim Legrand’s ‘We’re Toast’ | Latitudes Editorial, 2021
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Enari Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands, ‘While you were sleeping’
2022 Kamer 108, Gent, Belgium (solo), ‘Hoot Hoot’
2022 99Loop gallery, Cape Town (solo), South Africa, ‘Blue Moon’
2020 99Loop gallery, Cape Town (solo), South Africa, ‘The Parafix’
2019 99Loop gallery, Cape Town (solo), South Africa, ‘Twilight of the Vanities’
2019 99Loop gallery, Cape Town (solo), South Africa, ‘Hunting Pink’
2018 99Loop gallery, Cape Town (solo), South Africa, ‘Foofaraw’
2017 99Loop gallery, Cape Town (solo), South Africa, ‘Test Campaign’
2016 99Loop gallery, Cape Town (solo), South Africa, ‘Brouhaha’
2012 DAM gallery, Antwerp (solo), Belgium, ‘Imaginary friend’
2011 Feinkunst Kruger, Hamburg, Germany, Don’t wake ‘Daddy’
2009 Stichtung WEP, Groningen, Netherlands, ‘Constallations’ Tracé,
2009 Antwerp (solo), Belgium, ‘Drawings’
2008 Blutenweiss, Berlin, Germany, ‘Anonyme Zeigner 9’
2007 Joris Olyslager Prize, FMC, Flanders
2006 Rabbits and things. Tracé, Antwerp (solo), Belgium
2004 Different locations, Kasterlee, Belgium, ‘KasterLeest’
2002 De Wolkammerij, Antwerp, Belgium, ‘In serie’
2001 CC De Warande, Antwerp, Belgium, ‘Jong grafisch talent’
2001 Atelier-laboratorium Legrand, Schaafstraat, Antwerpen, Belgium
2000 ‘t Pekfabriek Kattenberg, Antwerpen, Belgium, ‘Borgerhout Multiple project’
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Powerlong art gallery, Shanghai, China (group show), ‘Being & Time’
2021 99Loop gallery, Cape Town (group show), South Africa, Curators choice
2019 No-End, Johannesburg (group show), South Africa, ‘NO END x 99 JUTA’
2017 99Loop gallery, Cape Town (group show), South Africa, ‘Winter group show’
2015 99Loop gallery, Cape Town (group show), South Africa
2015 Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town (group show), South Africa, ‘Form & Substance’
SELECTED ART FAIRS
2023 Art Athina, Athens, with Enari Gallery
2019 ICTAF, Cape Town art fair, with 99Loopgallery
2018 TAF, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, with No-End Contemporary
2018 ICTAF, Cape Town art fair, with 99Loopgallery
2017 ICTAF, Cape Town art fair, with 99Loopgallery
2016 Bennett Contemporary Art Fair, Cape Town, individual artist