Willem Oorebeek
Willem Oorebeek is a Dutch artist who has been living and working in Brussels for over 20 years. His main interest lies in the production and mechanisms of printed matter and its communication and distribution functions in society. By (over)printing and reproducing visual material often appropriated from mass media, the artist questions representational strategies and the functioning of perception in the age of image overload and the all-spectacle.
The conceptual works and installations of Willem Oorebeek have been shown in many monographic and group exhibitions at Lumiar Cité, Lisbon (2022); Sculpture Garden, Geneva (2022); Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna (2022); WIELS, Brussels (2017); Yale Union, Portland (2015); Marres, Maastricht (2013); De Vleeshal, Middelburg (2013); Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2005); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2006); Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2001, 1998, 1996, 1988). In 1986 he was awarded the Prix de Rome and in 2009, the Oeuvreprijs (Amsterdam). In 1997, he represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale (with Aernout Mik). In 2014, he created a permanent monumental work in the public space in Rotterdam as part of Sculpture International Rotterdam.
As the main tutor of the artist residency program of WIELS for more than ten years, Willem Oorebeek has mentored a large number of young artists, especially within the Brussels art scene. He is the co-founder of the independent exhibition space A.VE.NU.DE.JET.TE – Institut de Carton in Brussels, which since 2011 has exhibited numerous artists such as Jochen Lempert, Suchan Kinoshita, Sara Deraedt, Sylvie Eyberg. Oorebeek has also taught at De Ateliers in Amsterdam, the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, the Hochschule der Künste in Hamburg, and the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris.
The work of Oorebeek already belongs to several museum collections, such as the Stedelijk Museum and the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), the Generali Foundation (Salzburg), and the Frac Île-de-France and Frac des Pays de La Loire. In Belgium, the S.M.A.K, M Leuven, and KANAL-Centre Pompidou have acquired his work (FKS/A2021/029).
