Exhibition « Partage » by Nicole B. & Béatrice Cols

At the Écuries in Waterloo, the exhibition « Partage » will run from March 18 to April 17. It brings together painter Nicole B and sculptor Béatrice Cols, two Belgian artists who already know the venue well, having exhibited there successfully several years ago. Though distinct, their artistic universes respond to one another through the same attention to light and the energy of gesture.

When the chromatic abstraction of Nicole B meets the childlike farandoles of Béatrice Cols, a visual score emerges. Two approaches, two narratives, yet the same desire: to capture the ephemeral before it slips away.

Reflections of the moment
Born in 1944, Nicole B began her artistic training in the 1960s, initially inspired by the masters of the 19th century. Later, Kandinsky, Klee, Rothko and Matisse broadened her horizons, inviting her painting to breathe differently. In the early 1980s, a meeting with two watercolourists whose landscapes were stripped down and reaching toward infinity marked a decisive turning point. Since then, she has sought less to represent than to feel. Meditation, travel and nature guide her hand across cotton paper, where colour becomes living matter, blending with gouache, pastel and collage. Each creation attempts to hold onto a moment, even an imagined one, as one might catch a glimmer of light: fragile, vibrant and profoundly true.

Something of childhood
A graphic designer trained at the Saint-Luc Institutes in Brussels, Béatrice Cols worked for thirteen years as an advertising creative before becoming first a painter and then a sculptor. Her entire body of work revolves around childhood, its vitality, its fragility and its sensitivity. Her bronze sculptures, including « La ronde », installed in front of the Graffiti bookshop in Waterloo, celebrate joy and movement with disarming simplicity. As she likes to point out, each of her compositions tells a (small) story. It is up to the viewer to add their own emotions, a little of themselves. An open invitation for all, starting March 18.

More info: www.nicoleb.be and www.beatricecols.com