Dirk Zoete - The Cactus Derivatives-2, Monday July 8, 2019

Dirk Zoete
(Colored) pencil and pigment on paper, framed, 29,7 x 21 cm

Dirk Zoete stages his imagination. He presents his conceptual models concerning man and the world on platforms and in stage sets that form part of his work. He directs variable scenes with a slightly absurd company of characters, animals, and props. In both his drawings and his spatial works, the emphasis is on the surface: the figures are flat and schematic and populate frontal spaces. They function as signs in Zoete’s playful artistic language.

The form of Dirk Zoete’s spaces and characters is reminiscent of the revolutionary stage sets and costumes of the German Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism at the beginning of the 20th century. Except that his figures display a more human, almost melancholy nature. Some remind us of the later portraits of farmers by the painter Kazimir Malevich. This is no coincidence, as Zoete is from a farming family. In his creations, the farming occupation is intimidated by his choice of both images and materials.

Dirk Zoete (1969, Roeselare, Belgium) lives and works in Ghent. In 2017 his overview exhibition ‘To be determined. According to the situation’ was staged at SMAK in Ghent.