Neo Romanticism is the first solo exhibition by Max Kesteloot (*1990, BE) at Valerius Gallery, following the start of their collaboration in 2024. The exhibition presents a series of paintings that explore the space between memory and imagination. Neo Romanticism invites viewers to pause and reflect on the quiet beauty of the fleeting.

Drawing from a personal archive of video fragments, Polaroids, and photographs collected along the road, Kesteloot captures fleeting, often overlooked moments. These images serve as raw material before being carefully transformed into paintings.

The resulting works reveal themselves slowly, echoing the way nostalgia reshapes memory, offering just enough detail to spark recognition, but never enough to fully define the moment.

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Max Kesteloot - Neo Romanticism

Text by Febe Ampe

 

The feeling of a "déjà vu". A vague memory of a feeling you thought you had forgotten. Hovering, just out of reach. There is something beautifully naive about reaching back for a feeling that may have already passed.

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Neo Romanticism explores the space between what we remember and what we imagine. In this solo exhibition, Max Kesteloot presents Untitled paintings that function like unfinished sentences, fragments of a narrative that the viewer is invited to complete. By borrowing such a grand title, he flirts with the heaviness of this artistic movement from the past, while simultaneously embracing his craft as a classical painter today.

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In the process of making these works, Max acts as a silent witness. He does not dictate the scene; he lets it play out the way it wants, without participating. "Whatever I see, I take. Like a thief," he explains, referring to his personal archive of video fragments, Polaroids, and photographs collected along the road. But the camera is never the endpoint. These stolen moments serve as raw material, capturing the mundane details we often overlook, before they are carefully transformed into paintings.

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By offering scenes that slowly reveal themselves to the viewer, he leans into the deception of romance. Much like nostalgia, these paintings bend the truth to accommodate our longings, offering just enough detail to spark a memory but never enough to fully define it. The result is a collection of paintings that tease our collective memory, occupying the tension of a "déjà vu" or a song you don’t remember the lyrics of.

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Neo Romanticism is an invitation to pause. It provides a space to reflect on the romantic beauty of the fleeting.

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