Ontomateria (n., neologism) is an exhibition curated by Stephan Balleux. The word Ontomateria, invented by the painter, refers to a form of matter inherently bound to the question of being. The term combines the Greek ontos (being) and the Latin materia (matter), designating not inert substance but a dynamic, structured field through which existence is thought, experienced, and manifested.

Rather than positing a separation between abstract thought and material conditions, ontomateria affirms that existence is always mediated by material forms, whether cognitive, symbolic, technological, or sensory. It describes a mode of matter that is both formative and reflective, capable of conditioning thought while being shaped by it in return.

As a philosophical construct, ontomateria challenges dualistic ontologies. It resists any notion of a pure, detached subjectivity or ideality and instead foregrounds the entanglement of existence with its material substrates. It suggests that to think the human condition is to think from and through matter, not only physical matter, but mental, linguistic, mnemonic, and systemic forms as well.

Thus, ontomateria implies a model of subjectivity and world-formation grounded in material complexity, where matter is not merely a passive receiver of form but an active vector of ontological articulation.

This exhibition brings together five artists whose practices explore the entanglement between material and existence, not as separate dimensions, but as coextensive layers of thought and form. Guided by the concept of ontomateria, these works engage matter not simply as medium, but as ontological vector: that which thinks, remembers, resists, transforms.

Ontomateria is not about what matter "represents"; it is about what matter knows, how it shapes the way being is felt, imagined, and embodied. Across the works in this exhibition, we encounter copper that breathes, plaster that weeps, shadow that listens, and images that dream themselves into dissolution. These are not metaphors, but precise propositions: that thought is always material, and that existence is never without form.

Each artist, in their singular language, invokes matter not as substrate but as interlocutor—a terrain of excavation and intuition, memory and resistance. The exhibition becomes a field of ontomaterial experiences: porous, vital, unstable, and reflective of a human condition in flux and friction with the world it inhabits.

Stephan Balleux (b. 1974, Brussels) interrogates the limits of perception through illusionistic image construction, confronting the viewer with visual arrangements that disrupt habitual seeing. The materials—whether organic or synthetic—are chosen not for effect, but for their capacity to question the nature of appearance itself. Through layered cultural and historical references—zoology, architecture, cinema, literature—his pieces explore the ontomaterial implications of the image: not only what it shows, but how it materializes perception and reveals the shifting conditions of reality in an era reshaped by algorithms. The image becomes unstable matter—thinking, deceiving, decaying.

Alexandra Leyre Mein (b. 1979, Brussels) sculpts with an emotional intent that transforms every material she touches into a vessel of existential sensation. Her practice confronts fragility and strength, weaving together the organic and the rigid—wax into bronze, plaster against marble. The resulting forms embody ontomaterial tension, speaking of hypersensitivity as an epistemology. They radiate silence and timelessness, offering a luminous vision of humanity—an ontological exposure through matter.

Maryam Najd’s (b. 1965, Tehran) work confronts the ontological weight of imagery through a precise interplay of pictorial force and semantic collage. Her practice brings together depictions of women, nations, colonial iconographies, and art-historical codes to interrogate the very materials through which identity and otherness are constructed. The female figure emerges not as subject, but as site of ontomaterial conflict : where stereotype, history, and personal displacement collide. Her matter is image, charged with power and fracture, embedded with existential urgency and reflective thought. Nadj does not illustrate alterity—she materializes it.

For Ileana Moro (b. 1992, Costa Rica), shadow is substance. Her visual language treats darkness not as absence but as ontological depth, a space where things are not hidden but formed. Her technique embraces intuition, allowing the subconscious to emerge through fluid, open gestures. In her hands, matter becomes meditation—a quiet field in which being is suspended. The works hover between control and release, silence and vibration, presence and withdrawal. In this suspended state, the ontomaterial surface becomes a threshold: not simply what we see, but what silently forms us as we gaze.

For Marius Ritiu (b. 1984, Satu Mare), copper is not just a metal, but a myth in formation. Through repeated processes of shaping and oxidation, he elevates this industrial material into a metaphysical substance, one that breathes between permanence and decay. His forms, meteors, mountains, staircases, vessels, function as thresholds between immanence and transcendence, between earthbound experience and the vastness of cosmic time. In his work, the ontomaterial dimension of copper becomes evident: it speaks of transformation, of elemental resistance, and of the human urge to connect with something larger than itself.