This Serie consists of 10 works

After having established a remarkable oeuvre as a sculptor, Peter Weidenbaum switched to painting, a medium that he originally practiced at the Academy of Antwerp. An immediate link with the surrealist tradition can be discerned in his sculpture: wedges hammered into a head or fingers crawling out like worms. This is not immediately apparent in his painting. That does not mean that his desire to record unconscious processes is less because of it. On the contrary. One could argue that a work of art is all the more surreal if it is not noticed immediately and it appears realistic. His work is mysteriously symbolic, a frequent feature of contemporary painting. Things are not as they are thought to be seen. The more common the weirder. Weidenbaum reflects on the world around him. First at the paint marks on the trees, an international code that few understand. Then he looks from towers, which creates a peculiar perspective. Afterwards he takes us to the forest. Not a pleasant nature walk, but haunted angles confuse our view. Then to the big city. Streets, squares and monuments look like pictures in a tourist guide. Until we look closely, we recognize the social power relations that prevail in the city. The city and the modern armor, the cars, are inseparable images. The risk of roads crossing unexpectedly requires little knowledge of statistics to predict: the crash. The accident bears coincidence in its name. The objective accident that changes lives is a surreal experience anyway. Peter Weidenbaum also sees this strangeness of the everyday in the media. Who are the reporters? What are they talking about? What reality do they show us? It is with those necessary falsifications of reality that he is concerned. He uses an impressionistic technique for this. In the face of it, his paintings look like abstract flecks of color. A reality blossoms from a distance, yet always with the emphasis on the momentary, changeable, insidious. Life itself.  Willem Elias