Jan De Maesschalck

Jan De Maesschalck approaches painting as a process of observation, selection, and imaginative reinterpretation. His works often feature figures and scenes drawn from art history, photographs, magazines, and personal experiences, which he transforms into his own intimate visual narratives. His early experience as a draughtsman for newspapers and art magazines informs his practice, lending his compositions a keen eye for detail, versatility across mediums, and a subtle engagement with social commentary. De Maesschalck’s fascination with light, shadow, and the techniques of the Old Masters shapes the mood of his paintings. Utilizing a rich, evocative color palette and carefully considered compositions, his works are at once enigmatic and seductive, inviting viewers to explore their layered meanings and engage with the narratives they suggest. By blending meticulous craftsmanship with contemporary sensibilities, his paintings offer a fresh perspective on the Belgian artistic tradition. They bridge historical influences and modern visual culture, creating works that resonate locally while speaking to a broader, global audience. ...

Founded in São Paulo in 2011, Galeria Jaqueline Martins is a space for research, documentation and presentation of contemporary artistic production. It proposes collaborative curatorial strategies that foster dialogue between different generations and different cultural perspectives. One of its guiding principles is the encouragement of research-oriented conceptualist practices characterized by critical, even subversive, approaches. Since its inauguration, the gallery has developed a special program around the investigation of artistic productions carried out during the Brazilian military period – more specifically from the 1970s and 1980s. It promotes a historical revision of processes grounded on strong intellectual resistance, audacity and commitment to art and which transformed the artistic practice in the country, but nonetheless were neglected throughout the last decades. By integrating research and practice that confront the contemporary scene by means of its exhibition program, the gallery encourages the revival of the debate that conceives of artistic actions as contact zones for the exercise of aesthetic, social and political change. In 2020 the gallery opened its second exhibition space, in Brussels, aiming to expand our presence in Europe and to develop a multidisciplinary program that will foster connections between our artists and Brazilian art practices in an international context. ...