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online - offline
Legrand’s solo exhibition, While you were sleeping, describes the stuff of funny dreams – funny ha-ha and funny strange, dreams both unconscious and lucid – of events and encounters unfolding in the moments between waking and sleeping, between online and (never really) offline. Within the uncertain hours and dimensions of a twilight stage, familiar, forgettable objects assemble – or disassemble – in varying states of predicament and vitality, in delicious disarrays of misplaced punchlines. -
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Installation Views
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Influences
Legrand’s work offers a playful take on the paradoxical strangeness of everyday reality while commenting on our postmodern condition as victims of 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 a liminal zone, 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 the North European history painting and Surrealist traditions – the post-modern world overlaid onto the art historical atmosphere in which he was raised. -
A CLOSER LOOK
Symbolism & ThemesFalse alarm (Bird trap) -
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The Tiger
The Tiger is another important character in this and many more of Legrand’s paintings. Painted with precision, it straddles the line between a cuddly cat and the everyday orange, embodying a paradox of cuteness, ferocity, domesticity, and wildness. Despite its disarmingly adorable appearance, the Tiger assumes the role of a guardian in some of the artworks.
Lastly, a toy revolver rests in the composition, a symbol of real and virtual threats that increasingly overlap today. As digital communication surges forward, emojis become a universal language, and even symbols of weapons take on new meanings. The once-menacing metal revolver transforms into a harmless green toy pistol, highlighting the evolving nature of our digital discourse while harkening back to a time when innocence prevailed. In this unexpected twist of fate, the characters found themselves united in a dire circumstance, demonstrating that even then, a collective spirit could provide a glimmer of hope.
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To date, Legrand has held solo shows in Belgium, South Africa and has participated in numerous group exhibitions across the globe. His most recent accolades include a group exhibition in Shanghai and a residency at Belgium’s renowned Frans Masereel Center. While you were sleeping is his first solo in The Netherlands.
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