ARTE NUNZIO Spring 2025 at The Ancienne Nonciature
The Ancienne Nonciature and the Frédérick Mouraux Gallery are pleased to announce the art event: ARTE NUNZIO SPRING 2025
This group exhibition presents works by four international contemporary artists represented by the Frédérick Mouraux Gallery: Jonathan Adolphe (US), Sei Arimori (JP), Jörg Bräuer (DE/BE), Dom Gray (UK). The unique works of these four artists feature translucent textures, gold leaf paintings, photographic pigment prints and monochromes.
The exhibition will take place from 23 to 27 April 2025, covering the Art Brussels period, in the historic salons of the emblematic Ancienne Nonciature located in the Arts district of Place du Grand Sablon, in Brussels.
ANCIENNE NONCIATURE Place du Grand Sablon
7 rue des Sablons
1000 Bruxelles
Private Cocktail : Wednesday 23 April 2025 from 6 to 9 pm
Exhibition : Wednesday 23 April to Sunday 27 April 2025, from 11 am to 6 pm
By appointment at info@frederickmourauxgallery.com or by telephone +32 499 82 03 35.
Instagram: @anciennenonciature and @frederickmourauxgallery
The team of curators for this new exhibition is made up of two couples who are passionate about art and strong in their artistic convictions, and whose meeting was a natural one: Anne Derasse and Jörg Bräuer at the Ancienne Nonciature, and Flavie Durand-Ruel and Frédérick Mouraux for the Frédérick Mouraux Gallery.
ANCIENNE NONCIATURE
This mansion, a manifesto of neoclassicism, was the former Vatican Embassy in Brussels.
Cardinal Pecci was apostolic nuncio here in the mid-19th century and later became Pope Leo XIII. Anne Derasse, owner of the premises, interior designer and art historian, has restored it with perseverance and sensitivity and has set up her offices there, while the majestic ceremonial rooms, imbued with a subtle refinement, are opened up for selected events in the field of art. Together with her partner, the artist Jörg Bräuer, she is breathing new life into this iconic venue to make it a popular stop on the art scene. Together, they are committed to promoting artistic talent through exhibitions and concerts in this historic location.
FREDERICK MOURAUX GALLERY
The Frédérick Mouraux Gallery promotes contemporary international and socially engaged artists. The gallery’s philosophy is to be close to the artists of our time. Based on the conviction that art can create greater awareness and contribute to positive change, the gallery chooses artists with strong messages. The gallery maintains a diverse programme with solo exhibitions of several generations of artists working in different media such as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and installations. The themes addressed revolve around nature, ecology, human beings, fauna,flora and time.
ARTE NUNZIO is the new concept created by the Ancienne Nonciature for the artistic events it organises, drawing its Italian consonance in reference to the apostolic nuncio (nunzio), the Pope’s ambassador to these places. Thus, this former Vatican Embassy has found a new identity to become the ‘Embassy of the Arts’ under the impetus of Anne Derasse and Jörg Bräuer.
At the meeting of the centuries, between art and history, an alchemy has been created.
Jonathan ADOLPHE — American — His translucent works evoke the sacred, the fragility of emotions and the ephemeral nature of the human being. His materials are urethane, fibre- glass, smoke, powdered pigments and spray paint. Adolphe’s early works are a subtle blend and balance between painting and sculpture, using materials such as wax, blackboards, sand and navy signalling flags. ‘My paintings have an inside and an outside. The image is preserved beneath the surface. A thin translucent membrane separates the fragile interior from the rough skin that protects it. The urethane skin marked with scars and smallpox marks acts as a protective barrier against the outside world. The works are a representation of the fragility
Sei ARIMORI — Japanese — One of my themes is the relationship between the existence of certain things and the fact that they don’t exist by themselves.There’s a Japanese expression, “utsuroi”, which means that things exist and change over time. There are different time flows. Even within the picture plane, lines and colored surfaces interact. Can we make a painting or a three-dimensional work that strikes a chord with ourselves and others? For example, when a line is drawn on a picture plane, the position of the line gives power to empty space and appeals to the viewer’s sensibility.
Jörg BRÄUER — German & Belgian — Reflection on space and the alteration of matter
by time form the perpetual foundation of Jörg Bräuer’s artistic research, which is expressed through a variety of media: photography, painting, typography and installations. In his themes, which he chooses from among architecture and the essential elements of nature, he imbues
his conceptual approach with a poetic vision of the little-known universes that surround us. With chromatic subtlety and graphic purity that border on abstraction, he lets us perceive
the texture of time.
Dom GRAY —English — The artist makes us appreciate his abstract paintings, often monochrome, painted on paper. The support is exposed by the technique, which does
not extend entirely over the surface: unfinished edges from which we, the viewers, can escape. By dint of superimposing the color in “sheets of paint” the artist breaks down the structure and builds on memory; time is captured and restored to us, like a coloured wave, between delicacy and roughness.