ANTWERP.- Tim Van Laere Gallery is presenting Always Trust The Artist, a group show featuring works by Gelatin, Marcel Dzama, Adrian Ghenie, Kati Heck, Edward Lipski, Jonathan Meese, Ryan Mosley and Aaron van Erp. The title of the exhibition refers to a work by Kati Heck and perfectly sums up the philosophy of the gallery.

Gelatin (live and work in Vienna) is comprised of four artists. They first met in 1978, when they all attended a summer camp. They have been playing and working together since then. Their universe could be defined as a stupendous extravagant jumble. Their work originates out of performances and is translated mostly into sculpture. From 1993 they began exhibiting internationally. They have exhibited globally with museums and leading art galleries including solo shows at Fondazione Prada, Milan; Künstlerverein Malkasten, Düsseldorf; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris; Galerie Nicola von Senger AG, Zürich; Galleria Massimo de Carlo, London, Milan; Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna; Gagosian Gallery, London; Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, Miami; Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; group shows at Traklhaus, Salzburg; Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf; Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdof; Musee D’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Saint-Etienne Metropole; Hayward Gallery, London and Centre Pompidou, Paris.

The work of Marcel Dzama (°1974, Winnipeg; lives and works in New York) is immediately recognised by his own distinctive visual language, layered with artistic influences like Dada and Marcel Duchamp. He combines political and social developments with a world of fables, myths and fictional stories. Mostly known for his drawings, he also makes sculptures, paintings, films and dioramas. Recent solo exhibitions include La Casa Encendida, Madrid; World Chess Hall of Fame, St. Louis; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal; Kunstmuseum Thun, Thun; CAC, Malaga; MAZ, Zapopan; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig; Pinakothek der Moderne, Much; Le Magasin - Centre National d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble, Grenoble. His works are included in numerous public collections worldwide, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Gallery, London; and the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver.

At first sight Adrian Ghenie's (°1977, Baia-Mare; lives and works in Cluj and Berlin) paintings deal with subjects that carry a historical set of references, but collective memory is constantly challenged by enigmatic prophetic actions, occulted and personal folds in the temporal linearity. Ghenie's works have become increasingly complex and multilayered, generating an open-ended set of internal and external meanings. Infused with ambiguity, the works operate in the areas between figuration and abstraction, history and imagination, past and present. Recent solo exhibitions include Villa De Medici, Rome; S.M.A.K. Museum, Ghent; CAC Málaga; the Museum for Contemporary Art, Denver; the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest. His work has been included in group exhibitions at MAC, Belfast; Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; SFMOMA, San Francisco; the Francois Pinault Collection at Palazzo Grassi, Venice; and the Liverpool Biennial.

Kati Heck (°1979, Düsseldorf; lives and works in Pulle, Belgium) is to be considered an heiress to German Expressionism. One is reminded of the bars, dancers and actors of Otto Dix and George Grosz at the same time as the Old Masters. Heck synthesizes and fuses styles. She’s both an Abstract Expressionist as a Realist. She challenges the medium of paint on a completely new level, as a gesture toward unabashed self-assertion and its radical effects. Her characters are drawn from her immediate environment, for this show she invited star chef Johan Segers to model along with two of herself and two of her close friends. Recent solo exhibitions include Sadie Coles HQ, London; M HKA, Antwerp; Corbett vs Dempsey, Chicago; CAC, Malaga; Mary Boone Gallery, New York. Her work was featured in group shows including Middelheimmuseum, Antwerp; MAS, Antwerp; Bozar, Brussels; and National Art Museum of China, Beijing.

"My work exists between the cultural and the visual level," Edward Lipski (° 1966, London; lives and works in London) explains, "Iʼm interested in the space between something you understand and something that is also abstract. This confusion creates a particular intensity." His work moves between these two poles; the distance between extremes is blurred, until we find ourselves immersed in a seductive visual chaos. He has exhibited globally with museums and leading art galleries, including solo shows at Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht; MDD, Deurle, Belgium; Alan Koppel Gallery, Chicago; The Approach, London; Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York; Museum het Domein, Sittard, the Netherlands; and group shows at La Maison Rouge, Paris; Mudam, Luxembourg; M HKA, Antwerp; MARTa Herford, Herford; S.M.A.K. Museum, Ghent. His works are in a number of International public collections, such as S.M.A.K., Ghent; Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht; Arts Council, UK; M HKA, Antwerp; Mudam Luxembourg and Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Paris.

Jonathan Meese (°1970, Tokyo; lives and works in Berlin and Hamburg) is renowned for his multi-faceted work, including wildly exuberant paintings and installations, ecstatic performances, and a powerful body of sculptures. All of Meese's work is driven and supported by a striving for a rule of art, the dictatorship of art. Apparently effortlessly, he has developed in all genres an independent and at the same time unique vocabulary that gives his work a variety, visual energy and quality which, according to Robert Fleck, has been unheard of since Picasso. Recent solo shows include Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Carré Sainte Anne, Montpellier; David Nolan Gallery, New York; Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Berlin, Salsali Private Museum, Dubai; National Gallery Prague, Prague, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Gem, The Hague; CAC Málaga, Spain; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; De Appel, Amsterdam; group shows at Museu de Arte de São Paulo; Guggenheim Museum; National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow; MARTa Herford, Germany; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Saatchi Gallery, London; and MoMA PS1, New York.

In the paintings of Ryan Mosley (°1980 Chesterfield; lives and works in Sheffield) time, place, history, the characters that populate them and the spaces they inhabit are all warped, distorted, thrown out of kilter, in states of fusion, disintegration and recombination. The figures he portrays in various ways merge or correspond with their backgrounds; the contours of their heads, jawlines, beards and hair and cheekbones flattening into a field of interlocking shapes. It is as if, in some hard-to-fathom way, the people Mosley portrays are the paintings they inhabit. His works were internationally exhibited in exhibitions including Museum Sheffield, UK; Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen; Sadie Coles HQ, London; Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, Strasbourg; Museum of Modern Art, Moscow; Centre Pompidou, Metz; and Museum Ludwig, Budapest

Aaron van Erp's (°1978, Veghel; lives and works in Eindhoven and Asuncion) morose humor is channeled into haunted paintings. The artist’s portrayal of a reflection of a disconcerting atmosphere has never been more potent. His works often displays random acts of surreal violence. His gruesome scenes take place in the artist signature dystopian environments, which take the form of deserted beaches and isolated interiors which are made even more absurdly surreal by the random placement of objects such as a table tennis table, or a FedEx crate. Recent solo exhibitions include Stadtmuseum Gütersloh, Gütersloh; Museum ’t Kruithuis, s’Hertogenbosch; C-Space, Beijing, Noordbrabants Museum, ’s Hertogenbosch. His works were featured in group exhibitions including Museo Archeologico e d’arte della Maremma Grosetto, Grosetto; Res Muijsers Contemporary Art Tilburg, Tilburg; MOA, Bunnik; Marta Herford, Herford; Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht; and Kunstverein Kreis Gütersloh.