Dilum Coppens

patina

August 29 – September 19, 2026

Vernissage - Saturday August 29 (16h-19h)

Brussels-based artist, Dilum Coppens (° 1993) has featured in several exhibitions at Gallery Nostrum, starting with the galleries’ inaugural group exhibition, ‘What remains’, (October 2022, Wavre, Be).

We are delighted to welcome him to Namur for his solo exhibition, patina.

Dilum Coppens primarily creates paintings, drawings, videos, and VR that often come together in installations. He draws inspiration from his fascination with history, mythology, fantasy, and ancient artifacts, blending these with contemporary elements such as memes, drag, Y2K, and hyperfashion. His works emerge from fictional and vaguely defined times and cultures in which the historical and the contemporary flow into one another.

To this end, he makes use of elements that recur throughout his work: collages of images, stains and markings, and fragments of text.

The collages come from his archive, in which he collects images that intuitively fascinate and appeal to him. He brings images together based on feeling and chance to give the work a certain direction while also leading the viewer astray. To this he adds stains and markings that sometimes appear expressive or aesthetic, but primarily mimic a patina of wear and the passage of time. And the fragments of text, which resemble notes from historians or historical graffiti by passersby, are actually intuitive streams of consciousness that refine or further expand the mystery of the work.

His works evoke a sense of wonder. The same wonder we feel when encountering a Roman dodecahedron whose purpose is unknown, when we imagine the rituals and stories hidden behind the frescoes in the Villa dei Misteri, or the world-building of The Lord of the Rings.

In an age when images vanish faster than they can build meaning, Coppens creates artifacts that compel the viewer to slow down.

Dilum Coppens (° 1993) lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. He attained MA in Fine Arts at LUCA School of Arts, Brussels in 2018. He has shown work at Sint-Lukasgallerie, Brussels (2018); Werkstadt Kunst, Berlin (2019); M Museum, Leuven (2019); Museum Dr. Guislain, Gent (2021); Ithaka, Leuven (2024) and OPEK, Leuven (2025).

On “patina”

In the exhibition “patina”, Dilum shows recent works from the “Veiled” series. In his practice, he often ages his work to create a patina and the illusion of historical wear. This aspect is highlighted and explored in the “Veiled” works. Varnish is darkened and layer on top of his paintings to create a dark depth and interplay between concealing and revealing, which emulates the yellowed varnish on old paintings. In other works, the same image is copied multiple times and artificially aged more and more by distressing and staining the base of the painting, creating a trompe-l'œil of neglected storage and handling.

Please contact the gallery with any questions or for more information; gallerynostrum@gmail.com

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