Max Kesteloot - Neo-Romanticism

Neo-Romanticism is Max Kesteloot's (1990, BE) first solo show with Valerius Gallery and presents new works by the artist.

Max Kesteloot's practice is rooted in the collection and reinterpretation of images drawn from an extensive personal archive of photographs and short films. From this material, Kesteloot selects fragments he describes as “things he could have painted,” translating them into acrylic and ink pigment on Belgian linen. Kesteloot’s works often focus on marginal or overlooked details: background elements, peripheral spaces, or fleeting moments suspended in time. These images are frequently derived from film stills, captured mid-zoom or cropped to emphasize their incidental nature. The scenes Kesteloot depicts suggest a sense of temporality, evoking both a moment before and after the image. The visual grain associated with early digital cameras introduces a subtle impression of movement, situating the works between stillness and motion. Kesteloot’s imagery often carries references to American visual culture, marked by sun-lit atmospheres and understated melancholy. Kesteloot, moved by a will to paint, looks for “good lost corners, places that appeal to him”.