Chris Berens, Thomas Olde Heuvelt – HEX

From Saturday May 13 until Sunday May 28, Jaski Gallery organized a remarkable exhibition of works by Chris Berens, named HEX. This show was the result of a collaboration between the artist and author Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Nijmegen, 1983), who wrote an internationally renowned horror novel under the same title. We made two video’s, which you can watch here.

Suntop Editions, an American publisher of special editions of classic books, has released a luxury limited edition of this book. At the request of Olde Heuvelt (Nijmegen, 1983), Berens made the interior illustrations and cover images for this special edition of HEX.

Both the works and this luxury limited edition were presented during the official opening of the exhibition on Saturday, May 13. Chris and Thomas were jointly interviewed on that occasion by Jan Doense, the director of the Film by the Sea Film Festival, whose nickname in the film world is Mr. Horror. The conversation made it clear how the writer and the painter found each other in their love for literature, art and ‘bewitched’ beauty.

Chris Berens: “All my life I have been fascinated by books and films about horror. The mixing of different worlds fascinates me, which you can recognize in my work. I love loveliness with a dark edge and the suggestion that there is a parallel universe full of creatures, ghosts and chimeras.”

“When I read HEX I was sucked headlong into the world of Thomas”, Berens says. “A traditional Dutch setting that is completely undermined by a fantastic, masterfully out of tune element. The story didn’t let go of me and after I expressed this to Thomas our friendship started. It is fantastic that it has resulted in this joint project.”