Spazio Nobile presents Florence Coenraets
Florence Coenraets is a Belgian visual artist who explores the intimate relationships between people, objects and the environment, using feathers as her primary medium. She opens her first solo exhibition at Spazio Nobile next week, on 21 November, an invitation to a sensory journey through new creations made especially for the gallery. This body of work includes feather paintings and aerial compositions with evocative titles: “Atmosphères”, “Ciels”, “Cosmos”, “Haïkus” and “Immersions”.
Born in Eupen, Belgium, she studied at the Institut d’Architecture Victor Horta and received her master’s degree from the Sint Lukas School of Arts, where she began experimenting with hybrid headpieces. Her fascination with feathers began during her training as a milliner, and she later honed her skills in featherwork at the Académie des métiers d’art in Paris.
The physical and emotional qualities of feathers have led her to create various artistic projects.
Feathers also have the ability to sculpt space and make it sublime. “It makes space sensitive, combining matt and shine, power and lightness, density and transparency. Its texture gives depth to space and emotions. It’s the same precise, immediate gesture that I use in my “Immersions”. Each feather is a touch of colour. When superimposed, the colours blend together, whereas in the “Haikus”, each particularity of the material, such as the line, the shape, the reflection, is used in a precise way to depict a landscape.” – Florence Coenraets
“My practice begins by plunging my hands into the material. The feather immediately puts me in touch with this natural material, from the animal world, from birds. It touches me immediately and allows me to forge an intimate link with the living world, where every detail – colour, texture, lightness – becomes a source of inspiration. This intuitive, physical relationship with matter and otherness nourishes my work, while reviving memories and sensations I have experienced in the great outdoors. I define myself as a visual artist working with feathers as my preferred material. I’m also attached to the traditional techniques and skills of feather craftmanship, which I enrich through my artistic approach.” – Florence Coenraets
Her work has been shown internationally in exhibitions such as A World of Feathers at the Volkenkunde Museum in Leiden and at the Etnografiska Museet in Stockholm and in Belgium, at TAMAT, Musée de la Tapisserie and the Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels.
Since 2022 she has been represented by Spazio Nobile and has participated in numerous local and international fairs and group exhibitions such as PAD London, PAD Paris and Nomad St. Moritz.
Her first solo exhibition opens on 21 November at Spazio Nobile Gallery in Brussels. By combining raw materials with traditional techniques, Florence Coenraets creates unique works of art that combine the sacred and the contemporary. She lives and works in Brussels.
“Atmosphères” mobiles, which unfold freely in space, are connected to architecture, while her “Immersions” are linked to painting. She explains how she plays with feathers in her mobiles: “The feathers are arranged to capture and modulate the light. By suspending the feathers in a sculptural composition, they take flight and become light, airy structures. These mobiles create movement, moving with the slightest breeze and filtering light to create a subtle play of shadows cast in the surrounding space.” – Florence Coenraets
All photos by Fred Uyttenhove, Courtesy of Spazio Nobile
“The atmosphere I want to create is one of softness and travel: to be transported to another place, to absorb new sensations with the “Immersions” and “Cosmos”, to observe landscapes with the “Haïkus” and to be touched by the atmosphere created by the slow movements of the “Atmosphères” mobiles and their play of light and shadow.” – Florence Coenraets
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Next week
Welcome to the opening
Season XXXI- Florence Coenraets, Solo Show, Immersions
22.11.2024 – 19.1.2025
Rue Franz Merjay 142, B-1050 Brussels
Opening on Thursday 21 November, 18-21.00
Sunday Brunch on 24 November, 12-18.00
in the presence of the artist
Download the invitation here
Request a Preview Catalogue here
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Download the press release in FR and in EN
Photo by Fred Uyttenhove, Courtesy of Spazio Nobile
