At Théâtre des Fleurs, Belgian painter Johanna Claerhout lifts the floral still life out of its vase and places it on stage. Her flowers, mainly dahlias picked in her own garden, are painted larger than life. Powerful, contemporary and moving, they leave a strong impression.
Trained as an art historian, Johanna Claerhout draws on the tradition of the old masters to reinterpret it. In her studio, she composes genuine staged scenes with flowers, glassware and coloured lights. The shadows become distorted, doubled or saturated until they become subjects in their own right.
The exhibition brings together a dozen new oil paintings on linen, including several large-format chiaroscuro works, within a theatrical scenography. Through these works, the artist restores force and intensity to a genre long considered merely pretty, feminine or light.