The works of Belgian artist Céline Vahsen occupy a highly idiosyncratic space between image, object, and textile. Rooted in textile techniques and material contexts, they are reminiscent of painting yet fundamentally differ from it and thus defy conventional categorization. They do not function as illustrations of a process but as independent visual worlds that derive their meaning from their materiality and the process of their creation. Here, the canvas is not merely a support but an active component of the visual language. The threads of her woven images become lines, the colors become planes, and the structure produces a shift. In other words: Céline Vahsen creates images that generate spaces of possibility which seem to be constantly shifting. These shifts are visual formations that particularly effectively challenge our perception.
The artist has tailored the exhibition Shiftings specifically to the venue. In addition to the benches in the main room and a large wall of wooden panels in the exhibition’s smallest room, it is above all the two dominant picture formats that define the exhibition concept and shape the viewer’s experience. The exhibition offers visitors three different scales of imagery. A monumental work, standing 2.5 meters tall, was created specifically for the exhibition at IKOB. This work, which is downright imposing even by Vahsen’s standards, contrasts with a new series of smaller works that require a more intimate viewing experience. The large-scale work resembles a landscape that invites the viewer to immerse themselves in the depths of the image. The smaller pictorial object, conversely, compels viewers to step closer. Together, the two groups of works create a movement—or a shift—between immersion and intimacy, inviting reflection on perception, memory, and time.
Vahsen’s works move confidently between different temporal planes. The temporal dimension of her work is immediately perceptible and anchored in her pieces in various ways. The different sections of her canvasses preserve the working process. Every thread, every seam, every color gradient is a reminder of time devoted to and embedded in the works, which are not only the result of a process but also its documentation. They make time apparent as a material dimension. In its transience, time enters into a tension with the mathematical realities of the loom, which organizes and sequences time, while color transforms it into a reactive and open state. Although ecological considerations influence the production process, the works do not primarily exist within the context of an activist discourse. Rather, the use of sustainable materials and dyes is understood as part of a self-evident material logic and as an integral component of Vahsen’s artistic practice. At the same time, this practice explores the relationship between humans and nature on a deeper level.
Form plays a central role in Vahsen’s works. She employs the most fundamental weaving technique—plain weave. This is the simplest interlacing of threads without which a fabric cannot exist. Equally significant are the vertical seams that run through these works and structure the composition. The seams are more than simple formal elements. Rather than dissolving the materiality of the work, these subdivisions emphasize it. They do not mark a break but a place of encounter and becoming. In contrast to the line in a painted picture, which creates an illusion of depth, the seam in her works is a physical intervention into the structure. It is visible, distinct, and real.
It serves as a reminder that the image consists of parts that have been joined together. It is not about the illusion of a connection, but about the reality of assembly. The difference is subtle: The work does not depict a relationship—nor the image of a connection—but the connection itself. This is precisely what makes these works unique: They do not allude to connection; they create it, and in doing so, they are beautifully honest with themselves and with the viewer.
In this sense, Vahsen’s works are closer to the logic of weaving or architecture than to the autonomous pictorial space of abstract painting: the apparent construction reveals how the image is created and held together. The seam functions as a site of connection; individual parts become a visual whole.
The wooden surfaces of the benches and the wall are not merely a backdrop but an active component of the exhibition. They connect the exhibited paintings to nature and evoke transience and the cycle of growth. The artist’s interventions into the exhibition space create room for contemplation within the museum that arises not solely from abstraction, but from the material memory inscribed in every single component.
A list of recommended readings was specially compiled for this exhibition by Céline Vahsen.
Supported by Flanders State of the Arts and the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.
About the Artist:
Her work has been presented in numerous international group exhibitions, including the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan, Marres, Maastricht, the Netherlands, Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels, Belgium, and at the New York Textile Month, in the US. Solo exhibitions include E.A. Shared Space, Tbilisi, Georgia, Saarländische Galerie, Berlin, Germany, and Affiliate, the WIELS project room, Brussels, Belgium. In 2022 she also exhibited at IKOB Museum of Contemporary Art, Eupen, Belgium, where she received both the public and the 3rd Feminist Art Prize.
Most recently, in 2025, she was artist-in-residence at The Mothership, Yto Barrada’s dyers’ garden and studio in Tangier, Morocco, as well as at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France, and at Thread—The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Sinthian, Senegal. Previous residencies include WIELS Contemporary Art Centre (Brussels, 2023), iMAL (Brussels, 2022) and CAB Foundation (Brussels, 2021). In 2019, she participated in the Académie des savoir-faire at the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Paris, France.
Her education includes École Supérieure des Arts St-Luc in Brussels, Belgium (BA 2008), HGK – Hochschule für Gestaltung & Kunst in Lucerne, Switzerland (2007), and HAW Hamburg, Germany (2011-2012). She completed her visual arts studies in the textile department at ENSAV La Cambre in Brussels, Belgium (BA 2011; MFA 2013). Since 2018, she has been teaching at KASK School of Arts in Ghent.
