Alain Biltereyst — Magenta — Xippas Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

In 3 days: January 17 → February 28, 2026

Xippas is pleased to present Magenta, a solo exhibition by Belgian artist Alain Biltereyst (b. 1965), bringing together a selection of recent works.

Magenta, the title of the exhibition, refers to the Boulevard de Magenta in Paris, which the artist passes on his way to the gallery.
Drawing inspiration from the visual environment of the city, Biltereyst translates familiar elements—such as signage, logos, grids, and markings—into abstract compositions on wooden panels. These components form the basis of a distinctive visual language, articulated through geometric forms and a restrained palette of vivid, primary colors. The exhibition brings together thirty small-format works, presented with careful precision. Each piece stands on its own, yet together they read like a visual record — an alphabet of moments.

Magenta also refers to a key color in the artist’s practice. Magenta is often applied as the first layer, subtly causing the overlying color to shine. Layered surfaces, traces of tape, and visible brushstrokes reveal the artist’s process, emphasizing gesture and materiality. Working with no more than two or three colors at a time, Biltereyst frequently alludes to the omnipresence of logos and commercial imagery, reflected in his recurring use of blue.

The relationship to the city is further explored in a video included in the exhibition. Composed as a sequence of still images, the video assembles fragments of the urban landscape—advertising panels, subway graphics, ventilation grids, and markings on the ground—captured as visual notes. These everyday forms, drawn from the world of design, bear traces of modernist influence and circulate endlessly within contemporary consumer culture.

By transforming this familiar imagery into abstract forms, Biltereyst reveals how it subtly infiltrates our lives, offering serenity and assuming a role once reserved for landscape painters. At the same time, his work takes a democratic approach to making art, bringing everyday images into painting and breaking down the traditional gap between “high” art and daily life. Although his paintings may formally recall modernist abstract movements concerned with pure form, they remain closely connected to everyday reality.