Annie Gentils Gallery

​MARC VANDERLEENEN​ - INHABITENCE

​Inhabitance is Marc Vanderleenen’s seventh exhibition at our gallery, featuring a series of singerie paintings. The singerie theme was first introduced by Pieter Van der Borcht around 1575 and later adapted by Jean-Baptiste Chardin in his 1739 painting The Monkey Painter. Vanderleenen’s singeries are reinterpretations of Chardin’s work.

A new development in the artist’s practice is the series Nudes on a Coach (after Walter Sickert), in which Vanderleenen adopts a more “open” painting style than usual.

Vanderleenen has succeeded in giving his color palette a highly distinctive, almost trademarked signature, consisting of a mixture of brown-grey and ochre-like tones. By incorporating abundant yellow-a color considered one of the most psychologically intense according to the color spectrum—he achieves a unique chromatic identity. This instantly recognizable palette functions as an overarching stylistic strategy, unifying a wide range of thematic and emotional content.
(Thibaut Verhoeven, in: “Fifty Shades of the Most Self-Relativising Grey – Aboutness – Marc Vanderleenen”)

Marc Vanderleenen was born in Mechelen in 1952 and currently lives and works in Antwerp.

The exhibition “Inhabitance, a solo presentation by Marc Vanderleenen runs on the first floor of the gallery until 29 March.

Image: Marc Vanderleenen - The Monkey painter/Chardin, 2025 (fragment)