Bendt Eyckermans
Exploring the mysterious world of the young Belgian painter

The Lange Leemstraat is one of Antwerp’s longer continuous streets. It starts at the edge of the city center and cuts straight through the Klein-Antwerpen area, which is more commonly known as (a significant part of) the Jewish neighborhood. The street divides the segment of the Belgian city between the Mechelsesteenweg, the Van Eycklei, and the Belgiëlei into two halves—together forming a perfect triangle when viewed on a map. Most of the tall but narrow houses along the street are at least four stories high, and an overall multiethnic feel prevails, alongside the omnipresence of the orthodox Jewish community. When entering the street, one is instantly struck by a metropolitan vibe. It feels like a miniature Brooklyn in the heart of Antwerp. For me, it represents one of the many (hidden) qualities of the city, with its remarkable cultural diversity and unique urban structure, which has only been partly transformed for the modern age.
As you continue along the street from the center, somewhere halfway through the heart of Klein-Antwerpen, the impressive Résidence Isabelle emerges. The street is too narrow to actually see it before getting close. All of a sudden, it’s just there, forcing the street into a Y-shaped crossing. The apartment building is the kind of beautiful architectural dissonance one finds throughout Antwerp. It doesn’t match its surroundings, but it fits beautifully. In today’s digitally globalized world, the concept (or illusion?) of visibility is more dominant and demanding than ever. In my eyes, an organically grown, bricolaged environment like the Belgian harbor city still nurtures the opposite: a strong sensibility for the unknown and the mysterious, through its partly chaotic, partly impractical, but always deeply intriguing urban DNA.
When, sometime last year, we discovered the work of a young Antwerp-based painter named Bendt Eyckermans, a very similar feeling of mystery hit. Who was behind these striking paintings, which reminded me of some of my favorite magic-realist artists, yet with an incredible contemporary perspective and subject matter? After connecting through Instagram (bless the digital age too!), Bendt agreed to meet in his studio, which, to my surprise, is located right in my favorite neighborhood of the city.
At the given location, a pathway hidden behind a large, garage-like wooden gate leads to a redbrick house built twenty meters behind the row of houses directly alongside the street. This turns out to be the studio where Bendt works. Through another particularly large wooden door with a bird-shaped peephole, the young painter invites us into his personal universe, which, technically, turns out to be the universe created by his grandfather, sculptor Lode Eyckermans, and adopted by Bendt after he graduated. Visiting this space leaves an everlasting impression on anyone who steps inside.
Bendt moving into the studio his grandfather used in the 1940s and was used by him until his death, marks an interesting moment: new life officially flows into the rich artistic legacy of the Eyckermans family. Following in his grandfather’s footsteps, Bendt brings it into the 21st century, one haunting painting after another. Entering this unique cultural hybrid space—both a time capsule filled with Lode’s numerous sculptures (including the larger-than-life tombstone he created for himself, which was never used for his actual grave), and at the same time a breeding ground for Bendt’s contemporary paintings—is quite a magical experience, hard to put into words. That said, we feel deeply grateful to have been granted a glimpse behind the lid.
Bendt was born and raised in Antwerp, in the same neighborhood where the studio is located. He graduated from Antwerp’s Royal Academy as a Master of Painting in 2016, having been raised in a creative family. From an early age, through attending Antwerp’s Sint-Lucas School of Arts, he knew he wanted to find a voice to express himself. As a teenager, he thought this would be through film direction, but upon finishing his education at Sint-Lucas, he decided to focus on painting—not because he had already been doing it during his years in high school, but quite the opposite: because he realized he couldn’t paint at all. He wanted the challenge.
As he focused on graphic work at Sint-Lucas, transitioning to classical painting at the Academy of Antwerp took two years, during which he struggled, but eventually found the strongest artistic voice he’s ever had. Despite his soft-spoken and modest character, this newfound voice enables him to share his unique vision and thoughts on his immediate environment. He became the film director, DOP, art director, and gaffer of his own ‘films’ captured in a single frame. In an intense, warm, yet dark color palette, Bendt takes the world around him—his friends, lover, good and bad experiences, and, most importantly, ‘his’ city, Antwerp—and translates all these elements into remarkable paintings.
In a period when many of Bendt’s peers are increasingly influenced by the ever-expanding, metrics-based virtual reality, with its roots digging deeper into the intrinsic reality than ever before, the young painter feels a deep, intrinsic urge to stay critical of these developments. If only because, although it’s clearly not the only reason, it slowly but surely eats away at the one thing he (and his grandfather before him!) values most: the mystery that lies behind the unseen in general and in the city of Antwerp in particular. (This last observation became particularly clear after seeing his first solo exhibition at Kusseneers Gallery in Brussels last weekend: his works live and breathe Antwerp, especially when seen in a white cube.)
Bendt refuses to over-intellectualize his depictions, or overload them with all kinds of conclusive meaning about his generation. The young painter simply sees his work as personal observations on his life and the people around him. In his paintings, he aims to honor the mystery that lies underneath everything, hoping to inspire others to see beyond the obvious as well. This sheds new light on the covered faces, hidden figures, and unorthodox representations of the streets of Antwerp that can be found in many of his works. It gives the spectator space to search for something else. Despite the realistic aesthetic and representations of contemporary cultural elements that clearly make his work about the now, there is always room for imagination, and in our eyes, a need for a closer look.
Having been there ourselves, we can’t think of a better place than that mysterious studio—holding the legacy of his grandfather, hidden behind the streetside—for Bendt to create just this. Or perhaps the influence works the other way around: without the city of Antwerp, with its fascinating composition that conceals the studio of his grandfather, there would be no works by Bendt as we know them today. Either way, the rest of the world will learn about it soon enough, as Bendt may very well follow in the footsteps of his friend (and Antwerp’s current golden boy painter) Ben Sledsens, who’s taking over the world and showing at Nino Mier in Los Angeles as we write this. We feel deeply inspired to have been given the chance to experience the beginning of a new, mysterious Eyckermans legacy so early on.
Bendt’s first solo exhibition named ’The clouds have gathered’ will run until November 25 at Kusseneers Gallery in Brussels. Located at the Menenstraat 10, in the Molenbeek district, it is opened Thursday through Saturday from 14:00 until 18:00 (or on appointment).
For more work by Bendt Eyckermans see here >
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