Contact : Rik190900@gmail.com
instagram : @rik.van.gorp

Solo Exhibitions:
2026: Art Showcase, Zebrastraat 32, Ghent, BE
2025: Two be with 2, m.e.s.s.s.y., Brussels, BE
2023: INSTAPKLAAR, Dampoortstraat 63, Ghent, BE

Dou exhibitions:
2020: 34/2000, The Red Penguin?, Antwerp, BE (With Paulina Kaval)

Performances:
2025: a 24-hour manifestation, MUHKA, Antwerp, BE
2024: SNOBS at beyond the blackbox, Brakke Gornd, Amsterdam, NE
2023: BILBO – ANBERES: ITZULERA GUZTIAK! , ANTespacio, Bilbao, ES

Group exhibitions:
2025: (Slow Shutter Speed, Long Exposures), out of sight, Antwerp, BE
2025: Joshing choices, Broei, Ghent, BE
2025: BOVENGRONDS ONDERGRONDS, Galerie Ofwel Ofnie, Turnhout, BE
2024: Sculpture Ball, Stuivenberg Site, Antwerp, BE
2023: BILBO – ANBERES: ITZULERA GUZTIAK! , LLS Paleis, Antwerp, BE
2023: Buy local 3, Kunsthal, Ghent, BE
2023: The sequel graduation show, Sint-Lucas, Ghent, BE
2023: Home-Made as us, Creative Factory, Turnhout, BE
2023: Mi Amor, Sylvester gallery, Ghent, BE
2022: WUNDERBAR WUNDERKAMMER, Room TwoTwo, Brussels, BE
2022: Mag dat op 60°C, Groenstraat 64, Antwerp, BE (With Dora Brams)
2022: Cage fight, t’Primeurke, Ghent, BE

The objects left behind as a gesture suspended in time

Rik Van Gorp (°2000, Turnhout) studied painting at LUCA School of Arts in Ghent. He paints objects that, through convention, become carriers of his narrative.

Van Gorp's work encompasses various media. Several of his pieces exist at the intersection of painting, installation and performance. In terms of materials, textiles and paint on canvas are particularly prominent. Rik is inspired by cultural traditions that have largely lost their original meaning in contemporary society, traditions in which only the form remains intact. Whether addressing religious customs, such as the coffee gathering after a funeral, or the didactics of fashion houses in selling their creations, Van Gorp consistently disarms these unspoken truths of their modern interpretations.

Van Gorp’s practice frequently engages with the body and clothing as sites where social codes and expectations converge. Through performative gestures and sculptural propositions, he explores how exposure, concealment, and display operate within cultural imaginaries. By subtly shifting familiar images associated with vulnerability or provocation, his work destabilises conventional readings and opens them up to intimacy, agency, and ambiguity. The viewer is invited into a position of conscious witnessing rather than passive consumption.

In the years following his studies, Van Gorp has demonstrated a strong sensitivity to spatial context and everyday environments. His installations often draw from domestic spaces, presenting fragments of daily life that feel immediately recognisable yet slightly displaced. By isolating these moments, he creates environments that encourage slow observation and emotional proximity. These works invite the viewer to reflect on habitual behaviour and the quiet narratives embedded in ordinary settings.

His work oscillates between familiarity and estrangement. He dissects cultural rituals and daily scenes, reshaping them with a sharp yet poetic gaze. In doing so, he invites the viewer to pause and reconsider the everyday and the seemingly self-evident.