After living and studying abroad in New York, Guust Mathys (2001, Belgium) was taken aback by the sobering fantasy of the Big Apple. Simply taking a stroll around any part of the city leads you to encounter people, things, and situations that are not quite what they seem. With an open mind, a keen eye, and his characteristic enthusiasm, Mathys’ ability to interpret these surreal moments in daily life allowed him to channel that energy and concoct an amorphous visual reality. Here, an apple-shaped painting is left to rot, or a duck-shaped painting finds itself among a large flock of pigeons. How or what these situations came about is largely irrelevant; they simply exist, and you are simply asked to contend with and get comfortable with that fact.

For his first solo exhibition at Verduyn, on the upper floor of the third pavilion, he presents Take a closer look. Simulating the feeling of discovery experienced when walking through the streets of an unfamiliar city, Mathys builds upon that expectation by creating a fairly ubiquitous scene. In the middle of the exhibition space, several scenarios unfold: a group of pigeons gathered around nothing in particular, a bowl of seemingly rotting fruit, a lonely duck, weeds, and a dachshund off its leash.

The closer you get, the more obvious it becomes that everything present is but a mere facsimile. A vague suggestion that does not quite align with our perception of reality that our mind somehow accepts as a passable copy. The main points of contention emerge as the subject and materiality of the works escape specific designations. Veering the line between sculpture and painting, one cannot but resist but to call them by the name of what they’re mimicking. Each animal, plant, and object is made from canvas, stuffed, and hand-painted with acrylic and oil paints. Yet calling them paintings or sculptures seems inappropriate, as they so perfectly capture the essence of the real thing itself. Mathys’ seems able to evoke the spirit and soul of the most innocuous things, giving him leeway to recreate humorous and picturesque simulations of real life.