BRUNO V. ROELS Comes to the Howard Greenberg Gallery

New work by Belgian artist Bruno V. Roels, replete with his signature visions of palm trees, will be on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery from April 28 through June 16, 2023. Looking for Paradise, an exhibition featuring 17 photographic works, combines the Roels's interest in language, modern art, and semiotics. Known for exploring the multiplicity of the iconic palm tree in photographic repetition and variation, many of his new works incorporate hand painted lettering and are manually edited by drawing directly on his prints.

Several of the works are emblazoned with the question, "Looking for Paradise?" Palm trees from all angles, gleaming moonlight spreading on placid coastal waters, and diffuse rising suns emerging through clouds are key images that signify that paradise. The vintage-looking, coffee-colored prints seem like an elusive antique dream of possibility. In remaining faithful, iconographically, to the palm tree, Roels sparks escapist associations with holiday, adventure, and wealth, while remaining aware of the dark reality of a colonial past.

"We busy ourselves looking for paradise, but in the end it's an unsustainable concept," says Roels. "In the meantime, however, there's nothing stopping us from trying to get as close as we can."

Through darkroom experiments and by playing with the endlessly reproducible qualities of the photographic medium, Roels creates unique works that often consist of multiple variations on the same negative. Accidental stains and creases are left visible. This experimental and organic process results in a playful body of work that transcends the photographic medium in the strict sense of the word.

Roels considers the act of printing as important as the act of photographing itself. He is constantly documenting his life and building a sizable archive, which he uses to explore the analog photographic process. Searching for poetry and photographic truth in sequences and fluctuations, Roels reduces obvious subject matter to abstract information through numerous reiterations.