Born, raised & living off Brussels, Belgium.
Past: lived & worked in Singapore 7 years 2006-2013.
Influenced by Asian culture & Diversity.
Part-time lecturer: @ LUCA School of Arts, Brussels-Ghent, Belgium.
Past: lived & worked in Singapore 7 years 2006-2013.
Influenced by Asian culture & Diversity.
Part-time lecturer: @ LUCA School of Arts, Brussels-Ghent, Belgium.
SHOWS
2021 Le Vide et Le Plein, Musee de la Poterie, Betschdorf. {F}
2021 CASCO, Ninove. {B}
2020 Conversation Pieces, 1. London, Artist Residence Nick Charnley, London. {UK}
2019 Tijdelijk, beperkt in tijd, niet permanent. with Sarah De Schepper. Ninove. {B}
2018 Props. Solo show, KAAi, Ninove. {B}
2018 MuN'Ha. Solo show, Nederhasselt. {B}
2016 Cecilia Jaime Gallery, finissage group show Ghent. {B}
2015 Cecilia Jaime Gallery, group show, Ghent. {B}
2013 ‘Over hebben en houden’, performance with “de helden”, Cultural Centre, Asse. {B}
2011 Wayang Play Stage, National Museum Singapore. {SG}
2010 M.U.H. Gallery, Art Ghent. {B}
2009 “Vehicles and Platforms”, Singapore Design Festival. {SG}
2009 ‘House next Door”, Sint Lukas, Brussels. (B)
2009 Palimpsest, groupshow, Sculpture Square, Singapore. {SG}
2009 “My Vehicle”, Spazio Herno, Zona Tortona, Milan. {IT}
2008 Authentic Belgian Creativity, Zona Tortona, Milan. {IT}
2008 ‘Would you like to have a cup of tea with me” Sint Lukas Brussels (B) / LASALLE college of the arts {SG}
2007 “My Universal Home”, Singapore Design Festival. {SG}
2006 Instinc gallery. {SG}
2006 Design Mai Berlin, Addictlab, Berlin. {G}
2006 Design Milan Addictlab, Milan. {IT}
2005 LABEL: Belgian design, “Grand Hornu” Mons. {B}
2005 ‘Tuttobene”, Milan. {IT}
2005 “Maison et objet” with wildspirit, Paris. {F}
2005 “Il fait chaud a la maison”, Les petits riens, Brussels. {B}
2005 Passagen with wildspirit, Köln. {G}
2004 Lensvelt showroom, Breda. {NL}
2003 Mindspace, library, Harelbeke. {B}
2003 'ADIKTA', Antwerp {B}
2003 'coming soon', woonbeurs Amsterdam {NL}
2003 'The new harvest' Design Flanders, Brussels {B}
2003 Passagen, concept store POPULO, Köln {G}
2002 Fairy Tales, INTERIEUR KORTRIJK {B}
2002 Addict gallery, Brussels {B}
2002 100 years, 100 chairs, VITRA, Design Museum Ghent {B}
2002 Nomination ‘provincial prize applied arts’ Vlaams Brabant {B}
2002 ‘New Belgium’, VIZO, CIVA en HKRA, Brussels {B}
2002 Casa Europea, bouwcentrum Antwerp {B}
2001 Daedalos, Iraklion, Kreta, {GR}
2000 'Design for Europe', INTERIEUR KORTRIJK {B}
1999 ‘Zen, and the art ... ‘Centre for young Art, Ghent {B}
1994 ‘Design for Europe', INTERIEUR KORTRIJK {B}
1992 ‘Progretto Europa', Arflex showroom, In. Furn. Fair, Milan {IT}
EDUCATION
2015-2021 Ceramics, SABK, Zottegem {B}
2014-2015 Sculpture, Academy Fine Arts, Liedekerke {B}
2012-2014 Research Training Sessions KU Leuven, LUCA department of Architecture. {B}
2001-2003 Ma of Arts, Fontys, Tilburg {NL}, De Montfort, Leicester {UK}
1986-1990 Ba of Arts in Interior Architecture & Stage Design, Sint-Lukas, Brussels {B}
1999-2001 Sculpture, Art Academy of the city Brussels (Anderlecht) {B}
THE COSMOS IN A CHEST & ELEPHANTS OUT OF THE CLOSET
The Game Without Frontiers of Anita Nevens
by Max Borka
Anita Nevens has a thing for language. As even the name of one of the many creative fields in which she’s active, design, implies: it’s quintessentially about giving signs, a semantic matter. That principle also rules her art, and her architecture. What comes first, are the Other and others, and ways to connect to them. Everything must be interwoven. Also her works, which she sees as words, in which even a single letter more or less can make a world of difference. They are continuously in search of sentences that can give them new meanings, a text that combines with the conof connecting into a broader context. Whereas others want their Objects of Desire to be blinding, she wants her Vehicles of Connection to be binding, stimulating communication and collaboration within a community, for instance. With a view to making it as accessible as possible, her philosophy does not rest on big highbrow but lifeless slogans such as Style and Status though, Glitterand Glamour, Commerce, Commodity, or Comfort, but on lowbrow four-letter words such as prop, plot and spot, simple but imbued with soul or connected to the soil. Words that still have the emotional power to restore an interior or objects to a previously lost intimacy. In line with this, she also wants to bridge contradictions, such as that between mobile and immobile, open and closed, inside and outside, modernism and postmodernism. She allows those extremes to infiltrate each other’s world, so that a small box or room can ultimately encompass the entire cosmos. Her objects, installations, and performances are intended as a theater prop, pedestal, stage, frame, grid, or zero point, that allow her to organize the outside world. So never just say table to a Tabula Rasa designed by Anita Nevens. Because context prevails,there’s also less and less room for her Ego in her work, which is nevertheless strongly autobiographical: “I used to design mountains that I could climb on my own through sheer willpower, far from the madding crowd. Today I prefer to remain on the plain. I design floors, floor plans, networks, with which I can map possible connections”. With cross-border cooperation and the interdisciplinary governing her modus operandi, she has remained too much of a noble unknown. After all, one never knows exactly how to catalog her, as a designer, architect, artist, or performer. Yet how burning topical her work remains, recently became once more painfully clear, when her latest project, a workshop that also went on boundaries and how to break through them,had to be postponed, because of the border conflict and the world firewhich had erupted a few days earlier in the country where she would give the workshop, Israël.
2021 Le Vide et Le Plein, Musee de la Poterie, Betschdorf. {F}
2021 CASCO, Ninove. {B}
2020 Conversation Pieces, 1. London, Artist Residence Nick Charnley, London. {UK}
2019 Tijdelijk, beperkt in tijd, niet permanent. with Sarah De Schepper. Ninove. {B}
2018 Props. Solo show, KAAi, Ninove. {B}
2018 MuN'Ha. Solo show, Nederhasselt. {B}
2016 Cecilia Jaime Gallery, finissage group show Ghent. {B}
2015 Cecilia Jaime Gallery, group show, Ghent. {B}
2013 ‘Over hebben en houden’, performance with “de helden”, Cultural Centre, Asse. {B}
2011 Wayang Play Stage, National Museum Singapore. {SG}
2010 M.U.H. Gallery, Art Ghent. {B}
2009 “Vehicles and Platforms”, Singapore Design Festival. {SG}
2009 ‘House next Door”, Sint Lukas, Brussels. (B)
2009 Palimpsest, groupshow, Sculpture Square, Singapore. {SG}
2009 “My Vehicle”, Spazio Herno, Zona Tortona, Milan. {IT}
2008 Authentic Belgian Creativity, Zona Tortona, Milan. {IT}
2008 ‘Would you like to have a cup of tea with me” Sint Lukas Brussels (B) / LASALLE college of the arts {SG}
2007 “My Universal Home”, Singapore Design Festival. {SG}
2006 Instinc gallery. {SG}
2006 Design Mai Berlin, Addictlab, Berlin. {G}
2006 Design Milan Addictlab, Milan. {IT}
2005 LABEL: Belgian design, “Grand Hornu” Mons. {B}
2005 ‘Tuttobene”, Milan. {IT}
2005 “Maison et objet” with wildspirit, Paris. {F}
2005 “Il fait chaud a la maison”, Les petits riens, Brussels. {B}
2005 Passagen with wildspirit, Köln. {G}
2004 Lensvelt showroom, Breda. {NL}
2003 Mindspace, library, Harelbeke. {B}
2003 'ADIKTA', Antwerp {B}
2003 'coming soon', woonbeurs Amsterdam {NL}
2003 'The new harvest' Design Flanders, Brussels {B}
2003 Passagen, concept store POPULO, Köln {G}
2002 Fairy Tales, INTERIEUR KORTRIJK {B}
2002 Addict gallery, Brussels {B}
2002 100 years, 100 chairs, VITRA, Design Museum Ghent {B}
2002 Nomination ‘provincial prize applied arts’ Vlaams Brabant {B}
2002 ‘New Belgium’, VIZO, CIVA en HKRA, Brussels {B}
2002 Casa Europea, bouwcentrum Antwerp {B}
2001 Daedalos, Iraklion, Kreta, {GR}
2000 'Design for Europe', INTERIEUR KORTRIJK {B}
1999 ‘Zen, and the art ... ‘Centre for young Art, Ghent {B}
1994 ‘Design for Europe', INTERIEUR KORTRIJK {B}
1992 ‘Progretto Europa', Arflex showroom, In. Furn. Fair, Milan {IT}
EDUCATION
2015-2021 Ceramics, SABK, Zottegem {B}
2014-2015 Sculpture, Academy Fine Arts, Liedekerke {B}
2012-2014 Research Training Sessions KU Leuven, LUCA department of Architecture. {B}
2001-2003 Ma of Arts, Fontys, Tilburg {NL}, De Montfort, Leicester {UK}
1986-1990 Ba of Arts in Interior Architecture & Stage Design, Sint-Lukas, Brussels {B}
1999-2001 Sculpture, Art Academy of the city Brussels (Anderlecht) {B}
THE COSMOS IN A CHEST & ELEPHANTS OUT OF THE CLOSET
The Game Without Frontiers of Anita Nevens
by Max Borka
Anita Nevens has a thing for language. As even the name of one of the many creative fields in which she’s active, design, implies: it’s quintessentially about giving signs, a semantic matter. That principle also rules her art, and her architecture. What comes first, are the Other and others, and ways to connect to them. Everything must be interwoven. Also her works, which she sees as words, in which even a single letter more or less can make a world of difference. They are continuously in search of sentences that can give them new meanings, a text that combines with the conof connecting into a broader context. Whereas others want their Objects of Desire to be blinding, she wants her Vehicles of Connection to be binding, stimulating communication and collaboration within a community, for instance. With a view to making it as accessible as possible, her philosophy does not rest on big highbrow but lifeless slogans such as Style and Status though, Glitterand Glamour, Commerce, Commodity, or Comfort, but on lowbrow four-letter words such as prop, plot and spot, simple but imbued with soul or connected to the soil. Words that still have the emotional power to restore an interior or objects to a previously lost intimacy. In line with this, she also wants to bridge contradictions, such as that between mobile and immobile, open and closed, inside and outside, modernism and postmodernism. She allows those extremes to infiltrate each other’s world, so that a small box or room can ultimately encompass the entire cosmos. Her objects, installations, and performances are intended as a theater prop, pedestal, stage, frame, grid, or zero point, that allow her to organize the outside world. So never just say table to a Tabula Rasa designed by Anita Nevens. Because context prevails,there’s also less and less room for her Ego in her work, which is nevertheless strongly autobiographical: “I used to design mountains that I could climb on my own through sheer willpower, far from the madding crowd. Today I prefer to remain on the plain. I design floors, floor plans, networks, with which I can map possible connections”. With cross-border cooperation and the interdisciplinary governing her modus operandi, she has remained too much of a noble unknown. After all, one never knows exactly how to catalog her, as a designer, architect, artist, or performer. Yet how burning topical her work remains, recently became once more painfully clear, when her latest project, a workshop that also went on boundaries and how to break through them,had to be postponed, because of the border conflict and the world firewhich had erupted a few days earlier in the country where she would give the workshop, Israël.
