Opening Saturday, June 28 between 2pm and 7pm.
YOU LEFT THE DOOR OPEN presents new paintings by Thomas Thoelen (b. 2000) and Diego Boonen (b. 1993). Previous work by the two Antwerp-based artists was shown in their respective solo exhibitions at Galerij Hioco Delany: TALISMAN (Thoelen, 2024), PEARL IN A RUSTY LOCK (Boonen, 2024), and RED ROSES AND WHITE HORSES (Boonen, 2023).
The title is both a complaint for a forgetful act and an invitation into the unknown. In this duo exhibition, we are invited to enter two distinct worlds that come to life on canvas. For Boonen, that world is a pastel-toned utopia. Yet the (often deserted) interiors suggest an ambiguous solitude. He captures that feeling by starting from a monotone background in which details gradually merge with their surroundings. In many of his works, the door is literally left open. The estranged figures or objects within offer themselves up to your gaze, as if the scene remains incomplete without the presence of a viewer.
Thoelen’s cooler palette evokes a sense of undefined longing. He paints personal moments through closed-off figures or objects that house a soul. In that sense, Thoelen’s work stands in stark contrast to Boonen’s. While Boonen beckons you to step into his inviting and warm world, Thoelen first pushes you away with a certain coldness - as though you’re being allowed to peek into a world not meant for your eyes. To counter that tension, some of his works offer an escape: an additional world hidden within the painting, like a complex fresco forming the backdrop to one of his scenes.
For both artists, this new body of work is a logical continuation of their earlier paintings. Yet for the first time, they approach the same theme and fully embrace the voyeuristic dimension of their practice. From within their studios, their imagination travels freely. Their immediate surroundings serve as a catalyst for the imaginary worlds they construct on canvas. For Boonen, this may stem from an everyday moment - the sunlight reflecting from the white bathroom sink. The influence of Bonnard is unmistakable and can be felt in the intimate domesticity Boonen so carefully captures. Thoelen often draws inspiration from the spaces in which objects can harbor and develop meaning. These objects become part of a cinematic snapshot that invokes a resonant silence in the viewer.
Both Diego Boonen and Thomas Thoelen paint domestic rooms, or fragments thereof: a bathroom, a bedroom, a table in the living room. These do not serve as mere backgrounds but take on the leading role in the exhibition. These rooms, filled with objects that have their own stories, hold intimacy and disorienting memories. With YOU LEFT THE DOOR OPEN, Thomas Thoelen and Diego Boonen invite you to immerse yourself in these unknown worlds shaped by memory.
Text by Jens Roothoofd
