BERNARD VILLERS (BE)
biography | cv
exhibitions
​_born in 1939, Brusselles, Belgium
Lives and works in Brussels
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Bernard Villers’ practice questions the relationship between surface, light and colour, creating never-ending combinations and unexpected effects through the interaction between those essential elements.
His gestures, brought by a decades-long process of experimentation in the studio, are simple and clearly visible, everything is shown with complete openness.
The Belgian painter seeks his inspiration in banal, marginal and imperceptible aspects of everyday experience to create chromatic interventions often inspired by language, poetry or literature.
His sensitive and sometimes mischievous approach to painting produced several seminal series that are at the same time linked to the contemporaneous Support/Surfaces research and precursor to future experimentations.
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Bernard Villers is a major figure of Belgian abstraction. He studied monumental painting at La Cambre with Paul Delvaux and Jo Delahaut, then silkscreen printing at l’Ecole des Arts et Métiers in
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_exhibitions (selection)
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2024
Anni and Josef Albers : Iconic couple of modernism, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels (BE)
Ah...l’amour! L’Orangerie, Bastogne (BE)
2023
L’art de rien, Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels (BE)
Points, Société Libre d’Emulation, Liège (BE)
Private views, La Boverie, Liège (BE)
Paysages synonymes, Huet-Repolt Artist Residency,
Brussels (BE)
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2022
Emergent invites, Emergent, Veurne (BE)
INVERSION INTENTION, Spanish Embassy, Brussels (BE)
A Taste of Abstraction, La Patinoire Royale, Brussels (BE)
CHIEN JAUNE, Phoebus, Rotterdam (NL)
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2021
A non-u-mental history M HKA Part 1: fondation Gordon Matta-Clarck, MuHKA, Antwerp (BE)
The intimate consciousness of time, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
Le Remorqueur 75 – 21, Florence Loewy, Paris (FR)
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2020
THROUGH, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
Bernard Villers, Espace 157, Verviers (BE)
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2019
Achrome, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
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2018
La couleur manifeste, Botanique, Brussels (BE)
En de wind van achter: Vitrine, Sint-Lukas, Brussels (BE)
Livres et dessins à l’emporte-pièce, le Comptoir, Liège (BE)
A et B, Anne Leloup et Bernard Villers, Académie des B.A., Tamines (BE)
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2017
Vitrine : Le Nouveau Remorqueur, Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels (BE)
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2016
Le Grand Large, Quai 4, Liège (BE)
100 artistes, Musée Juif de Belgique, Brussels (BE)
Mise en pli, FRAC PACA, Marseille (FR)
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2015
Lieu(x) Commun(s), Maison des Arts, Schaerbeek (BE)
Jo Delahaut - Hors Limite, Botanique, Brussels (BE)
Du plomb dans la tête, Maison de l’imprimerie, Thuin (BE)
Le livre dans le livre, Les abattoirs, Toulouse (FR)
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2014
Trouées, Froidart, Liège (BE)
Icietoulà, 34 6, Linkebeek (BE)
It is not new, it is a book, Museo National Reina Sofia, Madrid (SP)
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2013
Répliques, Musée de Mariemont, Mariemont (BE)
Solo made in Belgium, Tableau d’une position, librairie Hors-série, Brussels (BE)
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2012
Le bel horizon : Les éditions du Remorqueur, Les abattoirs, Toulouse (FR)
Kaolin, Centre Des Livres d’Artistes, Saint-Yrieix (FR)
Anonymouslyours, cur. E. Lambion Maison Grégoire, Brussels (BE)
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2011
Inuit, Experimental Intermedia, Ei-Huis, Gent (BE)
Non, pas ce soir, La Trame à 10 ans, Musée d’Ixelles, Brussels (BE)
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2010
Half en half, Maison de la Culture, Namur (BE)
2009
La vue en Rose, La carte de Tendre, Cabinet du Livre d’Artiste, Rennes (FR)
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2008
Mickey, talvez, Musée Serrralves.
Porto (PT)
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2007
Le Nouveau Remorqueur, Iselp,
Brussels (BE)
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2006
La conjuration des couleurs : 10 ans de peintures, Musée d’Ixelles, Brussels (BE)
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Brussels, before becoming a teacher himself at La Cambre. His presence in the Belgian art scene since the seventies has been very influential and he developed a cohesive, thought-provoking and playful body of work. He created his own publishing house in 1975, Edition du Remorqueur, through which he publishes his artist’s books.
His artworks are present in the collections of FRAC Bretagne, Rennes (FR), Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (FR), Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (BE), Centre de la Gravure, La Louvière (BE), Fondation Gordon Matta-Clark, Antwerp (BE), Collection FWB, Brussels (BE), Musée d’Ixelles, Brussels (BE), Musée royal de Mariemont, Morlanwelz (BE), Serralves, Porto (PT), Werserburg Museum, Bremen (DE), among others.
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rapresented by Irène Laub Gallery
text credit Irène Laub Gallery ​​
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_collections
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FRAC Bretagne, Rennes (FR)
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Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (FR)
Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves (PT)
Weserburg Museum, Bremen (DE) Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (BE)
Centre de la Gravure, La Louvière (BE)
Musée d’Ixelles, Brussels (BE)
Musée des Beaux-Art de Mariemont (BE)
Fédération Walonnie-Brussels (BE)
Fondation Gordon Matta-Clark, Antwerpen (BE)
Banque Nationale de Belgique, Brussels (BE)
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