Artists

Janet Werner

Press release

Almine Rech Brussels is pleased to present 'Hell and Happiness', Janet Werner's first solo show with the gallery, on view from June 12 to July 26, 2025.

Hell and Happiness refers to an existential condition. As Janet Werner sees it, “there is a humorous and playful aspect in this work, but there is, as you can probably feel, a darker side, an underlying seriousness, a disorder within the idea of a unified image or narration. The title, like the paintings, embodies a contradiction: hell is generally not associated with happiness. Similarly, there is pleasure (happiness) in the paintings: the sensory materiality of the oil painting, the carefully calibrated color and composition, and the seduction of beauty associated with the female figure coopted from fashion magazines. But there is also a kind of destruction and violence. Most of the figures are cut, displaced, or shifted. In many works, the painting is divided and two images are assembled, horizontally or vertically; the two parts are  ‘sewn’ with paint, but they don’t always correspond or line up. The coming together of these two sides or distinct parts can suggest the idea of a before and an after, or of simultaneity. In some cases, the juxtaposition is quite simply absurd and defies any rational explanation. I hope that these paintings evoke the confounding mystery and layered complexity of experience.”
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— Julie Crenn, Art historian and independent curator