Michaël Borremans's enigmatic painting practice explores truth through contradiction and humor

Michaël Borremans operates from a converted studio complex on the eastern outskirts of Ghent, Belgium, where he creates enigmatic figurative paintings characterized by contradiction, humor, and technical mastery. His works, such as The Devil's Dress (2011), engage with art historical references like Manet and Rembrandt while exploring philosophical questions about truth. Borremans describes his approach as presenting information in ways that are clearly incorrect or out of place, reflecting his mistrust of straightforward narratives. He builds sculptural sets and photographs models to serve as the basis for paintings that often feature isolated figures on voidlike grounds. Recent works include disturbing paintings of dancing figures in landscape-like tableaux that he promises will become "really gross." Borremans has experimented with sculpture and film, including the 2005 film Weight, which used a disciplined twelve-year-old ballerina. His practice maintains connections to etching traditions while embracing postmodern relativism. Two exhibitions of his work were on view in 2015: Michaël Borremans: As Sweet As It Gets at the Dallas Museum of Art through July 5, 2015, and Michaël Borremans: Black Mould at David Zwirner, London through August 14, 2015. The artist sometimes wears a rabbit suit while painting and finds humor crucial to his work, seeing it even in classical painters like Vermeer and Chardin.