Hans Op De Beeck: On Vanishing

The Templon Gallery inaugurates its 2026 season, coinciding with its 60th anniversary, with “On Vanishing”, a double exhibition by Hans Op de Beeck across its two Paris locations. The project follows his institutional solo show “Nocturnal Journey” at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp and brings together recent sculptures, watercolours, and a new animated film.

The exhibition reflects on the notion of “vanishing”, understood as both disappearance and reduction to nothingness, evoking states of self-loss, timelessness, and estrangement. Op de Beeck’s monumental monochrome installations, known for their silent, introspective atmospheres, are here complemented by new figurative works, still lifes, interiors, and outdoor scenes suspended in time. Playing with scale, staging, and tonality, the artist transforms ordinary subjects into ambiguous, dreamlike experiences. His velvety grey sculptures, watercolours, and film immerse viewers in spaces that blend melancholy with marvel, intimacy with universality.

Figures such as a contemplative child with angel’s wings, an enigmatic horseman with a parasol-bearing monkey, or a nocturnal pier under a starry sky illustrate his ability to merge references from classical statuary, cinematography, and everyday life while resisting their conventions. The exhibition is conceived as a “cabinet of curiosities,” where simplicity generates wonder and each piece suggests fragments of untold stories. Through these works, Op de Beeck offers a meditation on temporality, memory, and the human condition.