Gerhard Hofland

A selection of new works by Johan Tahon presented at the second floor.

Johan Tahon (Menen, 1965) studied sculpture at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Gent. He lives and works in Munkzwalm (Belgium) and Istanbul (Turkey). Tahon has exhibited his work regularly in the Netherlands and abroad since 1994.

“Ce qui est fait n’est pas fini” (Baudelaire).

“For Tahon the act of sculpture is ‘the excavation of a cavity to make an object that, in turn, creates infinite space’. Figures are visible in the emptiness, floating figures in the space – the aura – surrounding them. Tahon’s sculptures invoke the vacuum, but at the same time, also accumulate volume, they force dazed viewers to take distance.” (From Observatorium. Alles wat blijft moet worden, Paul Depondt 2008)

After several studio exhibitions, Tahon’s first breakthrough arrived when he took part in the group show 'De Rode Poort' in 1996 in the Ghent Museum of Contemporary Art. Tahon had caught the attention of Belgium’s most influential curator and museum director Jan Hoet (e.g. Documenta 9), who made it possible for Tahon to interact with world level artists in this internationally renowned exhibition. From then on Tahon got the full support of Hoet who, in 2003, offered him the solo show Self-Self, in the S.M.A.K. Ghent.

Meanwhile his work has been exhibited in prestigious museums including the S.M.A.K. (Ghent), the MuHKA (Antwerp), the PMMK (Oostende), IKOB (Eupen), the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), the GEM (The Hague), major exhibitions such as Beaufort (Ostend) and the Lustwarande (Tilburg) and in galleries like Deweer Gallery (Otegem), Galeri Artist in Istanbul and Berlin, Galerie Van de Weghe (Antwerp) and venues including the Ministry of Finance (The Hague), the courtyard of the Topkapi Palace (Istanbul) and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington DC).