Biography
Lucas Leffler (1993) lives and works in Brussels. He studied photography at the HELB vocational high school in Brussels and completed the master's program (Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium).
His work is stimulated by a fascination with the materiality of chemistry and its bivalent character between the scientific and the magical dimension. He has an experimental practice of the photographic medium that he tends to extend to other forms (sculpture, installation). He draws on myths and facts, often linked to photography, to create new stories.
His work has been exhibited at FOMU, the Musée de la Photographie in Antwerp in 2021, at the Musée Elysée (Lausanne, CH) in 2020, at the Hangar Photo Art Center (Brussels, BE) in 2021, at the Approche fair (Paris, FR ) in 2021, at Paris Photo in 2021, at the Art Paris fair in 2020 and 2021 and at the Biennale de l'image tangible (Paris, FR) in 2020. His first book Zilverbeek (Silver Creek) was released in autumn 2019 with the Dutch publisher The Eriskay Connection.
Through his mud prints, Lucas Leffler is inspired by the alchemical nature of the photographic medium. One day, while still a student at the Beaux Arts, he came across a press article which recounts an incredible adventure. Two workers who work at Agfa, a factory that produces photographic films, decide to recover from the mud of the river soiled by polluting discharges from their factory, the silver salts that go into the manufacture of photo paper. It is the money that obviously interests them but the content is far too low to make a fortune. Hope disappointed. Eighty years later, Lucas Leffler, fascinated by this story, takes his shovel and his bucket. He brought back liters of mud from the “Silver Creek” to his studio and, after months of testing, produced his own photographic mud emulsion. These silver prints with mud, shots of the river and the industrial site, are at the same time a photographic experiment, an artistic performance and the quest for a Grail.
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Education
Since November 2022, Lucas Leffler is an artist in residence at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains (Tourcoing, FR).
2016 - 2019 Professional activities at T'ink Studio, fine arts and graphic design
2016 - 2019 Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Gent, BE) - Bachelor + Master+.
2013 - 2016 Professional High School (HELB - Brussels, BE) - Bachelor
2011 - 2013 Communication & Media (IHECS - Brussels BE)
Production
Since 2019, currently teaching at Contraste (Brussels, BE)
Solo exhibitions
2022 approche Paris With the Intervalle gallery
2021 Paris Photo (Curiosa sector) with Intervalle gallery
2021 Salon approche Paris with Intervalle gallery
2020 Silver is Moonlight, Pinguin Art Space (Brussels, BE)
2019 Zilverbeek / Silver Creek, Galerie AM Fondation (Paris, FR) curated by Arrière-pensée (Gent)
2019 MAP#95 - Nothing is lost, nothing is created, The Glazen Gang - KASK (Gent, BE)
2018 Zilverbeek / Silver Creek, Gallerie Sattelite (Liège, BE)
2018 Zilverbeek / Silver Creek, Contretype (Brussels, BE) Artists' proposal
Selected group exhibitions
2021 Art Paris Art Fair (Paris) with the gallery Intervalle
2020 Art Paris Art Fair (Paris) with Intervalle gallery
2020 Biennale de l'Image Tangible, 20th district Paris
2020 reGeneration4, Musée de l'Elysée (Lausanne, SU)
2019 The Golden Ass, In de Ruimt Space (Gent, BE), curated by Willem Vermoere, Flor Maesen & Lucas Leffler
2019 Wonderland, humans & landscapes, Platform voor actuele kunst (Gistel, BE) curator: Luc Rabay
2019 ManifestO, rencontres photographiques de Toulouse (Toulouse, FR)
2019 Graduation Show - KASK 2019, KASK Bijloke Campus (Gent, BE)
2019 That Has Been - traces as evidence, In de Ruimt Space (Gent, BE) curated by Tim Theo Deceuninck
2019 Tussen Droom en Daad, Master expo Zwaarte Zaal (curator Jaochim Naudts) (KASK, Gent, BE)
2018 Prix de la Commission des Arts de Wallonie, Abbatoires de Bomel(Namur, BE)
2017 Parcours d'artistes de Mons, (Mons, BE)
2017 Prix d'Art Contemporain du Luxembourg belge (Fresh Art - St-Hubert) - mention
2020 PhotoBrussels Festival #05 "The World Within", Hangar Art Center (Brussels, BE)
Awards / Nominations / Grants
2017 Open photography competition (catalog), Museum of Photography of Charleroi (BE) - Shortlisted.
2018 Liege Photobook Dummy award for Zilverbeek - (Photobook Liege Festival, Liege, BE) - Winner
2018 Unseen Dummy Award for Zilverbeek (Unseen Festival, Amsterdam, NL) - Shortlisted
2019 ManifestO photo festival(Toulouse, FR) - Winner
2019 Mobility Grant (Wallonie-Bruxelles International) - Winner
2019 Aid to publishing (CCAP - Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles) - PrizewinnerBooks
2019 Zilverbeek (The Silver Brook) published by The Eriskay Connection (NL)
2022 Prize of the Foundation - Laureate of Picto
Publications / Press
2020 L'art-même #82 - written by Sandra CaltagironeResidences
2020 Contretype, space for contemporary photography (Brussels, BE)
2020 Carrefour des Arts, Brussels (promotion 2020-2021) Artists' interviews
2017 Pitch your Photoproject, 8th edition of De Donkere Kamer (Gent)
2018 Gold Fever as part of the exhibition Gold & Silver at FOAM (Amsterdam) with Kim Knoppers and Luce Lebart.
2019 Fotodok Book Club #20 (Utrecht, NL) presentation of the book Zilverbeek born in 1993 in Virton, BEworks and lives in Brusselsrepresented
2019 Sabato (L'Echo/ De Tijd) Silver(ic) Rush / Zot van Zilver - written by Thijs Demeulemeester
Award
2017 - Open photography competition (catalog), Photography Museum of Charleroi (BE) Shortlisted
2018 Liege Photobook Dummy award for Zilverbeek - (Photobook Liege Festival, Liege, BE) - Laureate
2018 - Unseen Dummy Award for Zilverbeek (Unseen Festival, Amsterdam, NL) - Shortlisted
2019 - ManifestO photo festival (Toulouse, FR) - Laureate
2019 - Mobility Grant (Wallonie-Bruxelles International) - Laureate
2019 - Support for publishing (CCAP - Wallonia-Brussels Federation) - Laureate
2022 - Picto Lab (Paris, Fra) - Laureate