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Vered Ben-Kiki worked and lived in Antwerp. She presented her work in solo exhibitions at the Galerie Inexistent (Antwerp, 1990) and the Kanaal Art Foundation (Courtrai, 1993) and in group exhibitions at the Chagall House (Haifa, 1985), the Helen Rubinstein Pavilion (Tel Aviv, 1986), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Ghent, 1988), De Warande (Turnhout, 1989), the Container Gallery (Florence, 1989) and Witte de With (Rotterdam, 1994).

Soon after her death, the Shoobil Gallery in Antwerp organized an exhibition in tribute to this outstanding artist. In collaboration with [by’ro] desk for contemporary art, they make sure that Vered Ben-Kiki’s work does not disappear into the darkness of art history.

Art au Centre is a first opportunity to (re)discover this work which has not lost its suggestive power over the years. A double presentation will then follow in March-April in the exhibition spaces of RHOK Etterbeek and Sint Pieters Woluwe.

You will explore her drawings, pastels, collages, and paintings in which she uses a naïve and almost childish language. She looks at our world with a playful, absurd, and poetic gaze and transforms it into sober images in which the text is thought-oriented but is also used purely/strictly as an image.

Her visual language is full of caricatural figures and playful (architectural) forms. The language specific to Dadaist drawings is also striking. Her work is inspired by the history of art as well as everyday objects and situations.

Vered Ben-Kiki’s universe is both familiar and alienating.

Special thanks to Serena Baplu, Shoobil Gallery and Estate Vered Ben-Kiki.