Wim Legrand Come with me to the casbah, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 100h x 120w cm WL00918A R 28,500
Wim Legrand Coughs & sneezes spread diseases, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 100h x 80w cm WL01218A R 19,000
‘Overly excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration. Fuss over something of little importance.’
In Foofaraw, Wim Legrand continues to explore his idiosyncratic visual language of sponges, cheeses, hotdogs – randomly commonplace, seemingly innocuous objects staged in fabulistic scenes. But there is a marked departure in context and scale: These succulent items are served up within a nostalgic 1950s domestic landscape, set in a scale relationship with anthropomorphic figures. Characters resembling Olive Oyl (Popeye’s ever-distressed damsel), gloved hands à la Mickey Mouse and Toodles Galore (of Tom and Jerry fame) impose themselves within the narratives with a subtle air of threat that belies the cartoonish humour and associations of domesticity. This introduction of a subject-object dynamic spotlights a host of questions already flitting beneath the surface and buzzing on our hyper-commodified social media landscape: aesthetic theoretical questions around cuteness and its connections with both powerlessness and pervasiveness, with edibility and consumption, and with the domestic. On a side note, the Toodles character also serves as a wink at the current obsession on social media of Ailuranthropy – the seemingly ubiquitous
adding of cute feline features to one’s selfies. Multi-disciplinary artist Wim Legrand (1978 - ) offers a playful take on the paradoxical strangeness of everyday reality, while commenting on our postmodern condition as victims to the barrage of information and news feeds. Mundane and forgettable objects usher the familiar into peculiar allegorical narratives, where past blurs with present and fact with fiction – setting scenes in the unfettered “now” of a dream, meanings just out of reach and continually open to interpretation. He combines painting with drawing, cartoons and pop culture with aesthetic references to North European history painting and Surrealist traditions – the post-modern world overlaid onto the art historical atmosphere in which he was raised.
Legrand was born in Belgium, where he honed his skills as master printmaker. He currently lives and works in Cape Town, where he runs a collaborative production space – working with artists on fine art screen printing projects. To date, he has held solo shows in Belgium and South Africa and has participated in numerous group exhibitions across the globe.
Wim Legrand Thank you, come again, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 60h x 80w cm WL00318A R 12,000
Wim Legrand Cluster-1, 2018 Acrylic on board 40h x 40w cm WL00118A R 6,500
Wim Legrand Cluster-2, 2018 Acrylic on board 40h x 40w cm WL00218A R 6,500
Wim Legrand Easy come easy go, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 100h x 120w cm WL00818A R 28,500
Wim Legrand Galore Screenprint on BFK Rives 300g, ed/06 56h x 76w cm WL00618A R 3,700 UNFRAMED R4,900 FRAMED
Wim Legrand Spread, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 60h x 80w cm WL01418A R 12,000
Wim Legrand Good things come in threes II, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 120h x 100w cm WL01118A R 28,500.00
Wim Legrand One day my prince will come Screenprint on BFK Rives 300g, ed/10 WL00718A R 3,700 UNFRAMED R4,900 FRAMED
Wim Legrand Cut and paste, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 60h x 50w cm WL01818A
R 11,000
Wim Legrand Cheap shot, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 60h x 50w cm WL01918A
R 11,000
Wim Legrand A sticky end, 2018 Riso print ed / 20 42h x 29.70w cm WL02218A
R 550
Wim Legrand Come out, you're surrounded, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 50h x 60w cm WL01718A R 11,000.00
Wim Legrand Did you bring anything, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 100h x 120w cm WL00518A R 28,500
Wim Legrand Good things come in threes I, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 120h x 100w cm WL01018A R 28,500
Wim Legrand Moveable feast, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 80h x 60w cm WL01318A R 12,000