Ambassadors Archives - IMAGINAIR Art/space

Bas Pattyn

Brussels, Belgium

Bas Pattyn (1982, Belgium) is a minimalist artist and designer.

He creates art and designs objects based on formal simplicity. Bas Pattyn’s binary thinking is reflected in his creations. The apparent simplicity of his works serves as a means to translate the complexities of the world into simple and straightforward forms. With few lines, he crafts stories which are nevertheless layered. Educated in graphic design and furniture design, Bas – as many of us – is in pursuit of establishing his place in the world.

Bas is part of the team as IMAGINAIR’s gallery assistant and graphic support.

© Bas Pattyn © photography Arnold Henri

Monica Piloni

Brussels, Belgium

Monica Piloni, born in Curitiba, Brazil in 1978, lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.
She graduated from the Sculpture Course at the School of Music and Fine Arts of Paraná (EMBAP) in 2002. Among her solo shows in Brazil, stand out “Dissident Symmetries”, Sorocaba Contemporary Art Museum (2022), “Humans, All Too Human” (2022) and “Cyclo” (2019), both in Zipper Gallery, São Paulo and “Both Odd”, Laura Marsiaj Gallery, Rio de Janeiro (2013). Furthermore, the artist participated in group exhibitions in major institutions in Brazil and abroad.

Observing her work as a whole, Piloni’s fascination with the representation of the female figure becomes clear. What originally started from the self-portrait became, over time, a symbolic portrait of all women. Art as a collective narrative, according to Piloni also an impulse for social change.

Construction and mirroring are recurring elements in Piloni’s work. In this way, the artist deforms the body to expand the perception of what the physical figure can be, making it as attractive as it is repulsive. The artist’s creatures, which although always composed of parts of the human body, also refer to mythological figures or demons, come to life in different media. The main medium in which her ‘beings’ exist is sculpture, but Piloni also manipulates them physically, virtually, through photography, animated, mounted on a pedestal or as part of an installation, all while exploring different materials such as bronze, marble, ceramic, fiberglass and plastic.

© Monica Piloni © Pictures Gui Gomes, Luciano Munhoz, Monica Piloni

Jaïr Marc Castillo

Brussels, BE

Jair Marc Castillo, born in Curaçao, moved from one place to another, between different countries and continents. Sometimes he felt at home there, but other times he didn’t.

Today, he translates this ingrained uprooting and the further desire to stay on the road into a visual journey clearly based on the search for one’s own belonging, identity, and origin. Being on the road became a state of mind, something that never stops. He captures every movement and encounter in black and white images. Black and white pushes him towards pure emotion and emphasizes form and texture, making the movement in the still image even more prominent. With his aesthetic choices, such as the many nuances of grey tones, he wants the viewer to lose himself in detail and thus enter his layered universe.

His images open a dialogue about identity, origins and feeling of home. They create spaces where questions emerge, complex emotions and shared experiences are acknowledged.

Ruben Boeren

Antwerp, BE

Ruben Boeren (1988, Antwerp) explores in his work the theatrical image and how to translate it in a contemporary and personal way.

This often results in an alienation of the underlying composition and a symbiosis of figuration and abstraction.

‘This merging of abstract and figurative morphology creates room for interpretation. This allows me to develop my own symbolism. It is interesting to see how people really develop a personal relationship with my works.‘ – Ruben Boeren

Above all, the artist celebrates the joy of painting and his ambition is to transmit that spark to the viewer.

Ruben Boeren studied painting at the Academy of Antwerp, followed by a postgraduate degree in visual research at Sint-Lucas Antwerp.

Bruno Devos

Antwerp, BE

HOPPER&FUCHS

Bruno Devos, publisher and maker of art books

HOPPER&FUCHS is an independent publishing house based in Antwerp, Belgium. HOPPER&FUCHS started in December 2019 with the publication For my Mother by Ren Hang, placing them on the art book publishing map. Since then, HOPPER&FUCHS have been creating a dynamic and high-quality portfolio of art books and photobooks. All books are printed locally in Belgium ensuring our craft stays within our control.

Bruno Devos has worked in the publishing and printing world for over thirty years and uses his expertise and knowledge to guide artists in creating one of the greatest objects in the world, an art book. Bruno Devos has been organising or curating contemporary art and photography exhibitions in Belgium and abroad. He is also an ambassador and advocate of cultural diplomacy, and a regular member of academic juries, and giving guest lectures in art schools on the topic of the book.

After the books are carefully curated and produced, they go on the road with book presentations, talks and art book / photobook fairs across the globe. Bruno Devos and his team have launched books and have given talks at The Kandinsky Library, Centre Pompidou, Paris, M HKA, Mu.ZEE, FOMU, SMAK Ghent, WIELS, Kanal Brussels, WEST Den Haag, The Photographer’s Gallery, London, Photobook Cafe, London, Kunsthal Ghent and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Highlighted art book fairs include Tokyo Art Book Fair, Singapore Art Book Fair, Arles Book Fair, Miss Read Berlin, WIELS Art Book Fair, P.A.G.E.S, Geneva, It’s a book Leipzig, and Unseen Book Market.

Besides the epic HOPPER&FUCHS catalog, he his also responsible for the distribution of the back catalog for Stockmans Art Books. All books belonging to this back catalog were printed and published by Bruno Devos between 2016 — 2024.