Bram Demunter's Carnivalesque Paintings at Tim Van Laere Gallery Rome

Tim Van Laere Gallery in Rome presents 'Swift as Whirlwind, Through the Marble Sky', the first solo exhibition in the city by Belgian artist Bram Demunter (born 1993, Kortrijk). All works are from 2024, including oil paintings on canvas and wood, as well as ink and pencil drawings on paper. Demunter's carnivalesque scenes blend inner and outer worlds, seeking balance between emotional conflicts and nature, dense events and cosmic contemplation. His imagery features lizards, birds, crocodiles, chimeras, and severed heads, evoking medieval bestiaries and allegorical codes. Mythological figures such as Beowulf, Don Quixote, Mad Meg (from Brueghel), and the Ethiopian ascetic Honofrius appear not as heroes but as vulnerable humans. The painterly style references Persian and Indian tapestries, Italian Renaissance composition, James Ensor's visionary expressionism, and Georg Baselitz's inversions. The exhibition runs at the gallery's Rome location.