Opening Wednesday, May 30, 2007, Wako Works of Art is very pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Belgian artist Raoul De Keyser. This will be the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.

Raoul De Keyser was born in 1930 in Deinze, Belgium, where he still lives and works today. His participation in the Nieuwe Visie (New Vision) group from the mid-60s allowed for him to explore the principles of Modern Formalism and the use of motifs derived from popular culture and the everyday. This close exploration of the color, structure and composition led to a style that is abstract yet figurative, refined yet crude, contemplated yet free, most unique in juxtaposition to his contemporaries. The unexpected cohesion found in his large body of work reveals the artist’s persistent exertion to refine his reduction of the image. De Keyser’s exploration of the visual language has earned him the recognition as the precursor to a generation of “New Painters” in Belgium.

De Keyser has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe, such as the Documenta IX in Kassel, 1992 and unbound.Possibilities in Painting at the Hayward Gallery, London, 1994. From 2004, a retrospective of the artist traveled from Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, to the Musee de Rochechouart, France, De Pont in the Netherlands, the Fundacao de Serralves, Portugal and the Kunstverein St. Gallen, Switzerland. A solo exhibition at the Museum van Deinze en de Leiestreek, Belgium is scheduled to take place this fall, and the artist’s works are also slated to appear at this year’s Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, curated by Robert Storr.

The exhibition at Wako Works of Art will feature eleven paintings and ten watercolors by De Keyser. A fully illustrated catalogue will be published in conjunction with this exhibition