News & Events NOTTINGHAM GALLERY TO DEBUT WORK BY A BELGIAN ARTIST FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE UK

A WALLONIAN artist has chosen a Nottingham city gallery to premier an exhibition of works exploring the female image and the perception of beauty this November.

Joël Moens de Hase, who will be appearing in person at the launch of his exhibition on Saturday 8 November, collects the images online and uses them to build mosaics, creating portraits and larger images of those used in the mosaic itself.

The artist spent years building up a collection of over 75,000 images depicting the female form, which are used across all his works as the building blocks for each piece.

Each of Joël’s digital print creations are comprised of around 7,000 images which have been shrunken down in size and arranged into digital mosaics and coloured in order to create the artist’s stunning creations.

George Thornton gallery owner at George Thornton Art said: “It’s great to have Joël’s work here in the gallery – he is a real rising star within the art world and one that I’m proud to have in my gallery.

“We are always on the look-out for new and dynamic artists who demonstrate real talent and ingenuity – as a gallery we pride ourselves on offering something different and Joël brings a concept that has not been seen before.”

The artist’s photo mosaic creations resemble from afar perfectly formed portraits such as his recreation of Johannes Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, but upon closer inspection the image begins to unfold and the portrait’s many elements begin to show through. 

George added: “When I first saw the image I thought wow, here is a great recreation of Vermeer and then you focus on the make-up of the piece and how it’s been put together and your whole perception of the piece changes in an instance.

“It’s actually quite a cheeky shock when you first see them, but it works on so many levels.”

An artist’s reception with Joël Moens de Hase will be held in the gallery on Saturday 8 November from 1pm – 4pm where the Belgium-born artist will discuss his work.

The exhibition will be housed at George Thornton Art in Nottingham’s Flying Horse Walk from Saturday 8 November and will run for one week closing on Saturday 15 November.