Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) sparked a painting revolution with minimal action and a velvet palette, amid contemporaries such as Pollock and de Kooning. Her revolutionary approach to making paint appear like a melody on the canvas led to delicate, charming but also monumental and architectural works.
Therefore, from now on, we will no longer talk about the ‘Separate Room’, but about the ‘Helen Frankenthaler Room’, where we display equally interesting works than in the main exhibition space.
SARA VAN VLIET
”3973 Kilometers”‘ solo exhibition
In the summer of 2024, Sara began documenting her solo cycling trips in short video vlogs, originally intended for friends and family. What started as a light-hearted way of sharing soon grew into an essential part of her artistic practice. As time went on, she discovered that cycling itself, together with the daily filming, became an extension of her artistic research. For a long time, she kept her athletic and artistic life separate: She skated at a high level in marathon speed skating while studying at art school. Both worlds demanded full dedication to a single discipline. She ultimately chose art, but the physical commitment, repetition, and mental discipline of those athletic years have always stayed with her. Now she realizes that art and endurance sports have far more in common than she once thought: both require discipline, focus, and perseverance, and both offer a space for observing, reflecting, and persisting.
3973 kilometers, 46 days, 20 friends and 2 punctures later… is the first project in which these worlds come together. In the summer of 2025, she cycled from Antwerp to the North Cape. Every evening, after setting up her tent, she made a drawing in black oil pastel of the grass at her feet. A daily ritual, an inquiry into the act of scratching: what happens when a gesture is repeated, under shifting conditions, tired and alone? The 46 drawings form an analogue diary: a visual record of rhythm, repetition, and physical presence. In parallel, she created short video reports that she shared online, giving the project a performative, digital dimension as well.
