Applying THINGS UNSEEN to an exhibition of Contemporary Art creates a figure of speech that borders on a tautology or a pleonasm. After all, one expects to see something that has not been seen before, to such an extent that the everyday familiar acquires a poetic charge through images. What was previously seen falls short, losing, as it were, its capacity to be the full bearer of ‘the’ reality, of ‘all’ meaning. To be a point of contact to which the unfolding and developing human being can draw strength, fully identify with, or become so spiritually or emotionally dizzy from it that new opportunities are offered to marvel and broaden one's horizons.

We find THINGS UNSEEN in a Bible verse: So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:18)

God advises against clinging to that which can be seen, for what can be seen is perishable and what cannot be seen is eternal, is Divine.

To stick with figures of speech, the title of this exhibition is perhaps a hyperbole, intended to give extra emphasis to the intention of this exhibition by exaggerating and adopting a very ambitious stance.

Art is sometimes regarded as an evolution of perception. That is why art continues to surprise. Primarily the creator of it, the artist, closely followed by the art lover, the gallery and museum visitor, the art collector, and others.

Is art a continuous initiation into what could not be seen before? I think so. However strange, at first glance unnatural, contradictory, sometimes shocking, or contrary art may be, art shows things as they are and in the specific time and space to which they belong. Art shows its own time and its own space. Especially by virtue of the inconstancy, changeability, and relativity of time and space.

The work of the six artists in this exhibition is an example of that.

Eric Colpaert, Oostduinkerke, 04 06 2021.