Manon De Craene

Manon has studied painting at LUCA School of Arts and combined this with different studies in part-time arts education. The interaction between both was very interesting. After her studies, Manon started teaching visual arts in part-time arts education.

Manon De Craene her artwork is characterized by time and abstraction. This translates in boisterous canvases in which colour and lines meet each other in layers. She views time as a volatile concept. She tries to catch time in dynamic strokes and paints it down. It’s a process which often repeats itself in the same canvas. One could say that time puts literal layers over the piece.

General impressions and emotions form the oil and lube of this tandem. In this way, Manon starts from the daily stimuli, the chaos of the impressions she gets from waiting, walking, and observing men, object, sound and situation. From a certain prompting, she starts the design of her canvases and drawings/sketches. As time goes on, the work evolves. Layers are being added. Within Manon’s work, different shapes don’t keep each other into account. Time after time, these shapes want to surpass the last/ previous ones, just as sounds, conversations and images do in daily life. It’s not a conflict, but rather a journey. A trip with multiple stages, stops that add to or take from the images and without a previously known outcome.

Manon also creates three-dimensional collages. The postcard is expropriated and cast into a new, modern-day form, a new reality, a new existence. The collage technique allows her to make rapid decisions and fixate the energy of the moment. With visual decisiveness, she processes these flat carriers into spatial constructions that are literally and figuratively being supported by their own fragility.

2018-2019 Teacher training – LUCA School of Arts, Gent
2017-2018 Master visual arts – LUCA School of Arts, Gent
2014-2017 Bachelor visual arts, Painting – LUCA School of Arts, Gent

2019: Platvvorm, Deinze
2020: Duo residency with Elisia Poelman, BLANCO Ghent

2025

Biënnale hedendaagse kunst, Kasteel van Poeke, Poeke
Art scene Laarne, Group Exhibition, White Duck, Laarne
Mycelium Connections, Group Exhibition BLANCO, Gent
Changing mural, Sphinx café, Gent

2024
Augmented reality, Group Exhibition, CAS, Zottegem
Meralda collectif, Group Exhibition, BROEI, Gent
The garden of love, Group Exhibition, Galerie p., Oostende
Whisky Sour, Group Exhibition, Katapultt, Scheldewindeke
Kettingbrievenaanblanco, Group Exhibition, BLANCO, Gent

2023
Opera Aperta, Group exhibition, Villa De Bondt, Gent
Invites, Group Exhibition, Oakwood 26th, Brugge
Rhapsody finding harmony within the differences, Group Exhibition, TaLe Art Gallery, Vlierzele

2022
Paradise Lost – Gallery Papillon, Oostende
Together apart, group exhibition – Discus, Aalst
Travelling without moving, group exhibition – BLANCO, Gent

2021
Getekend, group exhibition – Bogardenkapel, Brugge

2019
Untitled 2, group exhibition – Mu.ZEE, Oostende
Hidden Expo, group exhibition – MHKA, Antwerpen
Residenten zwaaien af, group exhibition – Platvvorm, Deinze
Manon De Craene Uitgelicht, solo exhibition – De Tank, Brugge

2018
Arnoevoo, group exhibition – MEC Staf Versluys, Bredene
Entre pot en pint #1, group exhibition – Brugge
Stimulans 18, group exhibition Bubox – Kortrijk
GGB Club House x Minna Minda, group exhibition – Plek, Gent

2017
Sidderaal, group exhibition – LUCA School Of Arts, Gent
Minna Minda #2, group exhibition – Gent
7+1, group exhibition – art academy, Tielt
Minna Minda #I, group exhibition – Gent
Sale, group exhibition – CC Stoming, Berlare

2021: Acrobatieën met kleur, The Art Couch #8
2021: Art is buch, pg. 127, artist book Nucleo
2020: Carte Blanche, Kunstletters.