Sharon Van Overmeiren (*1985, Antwerp, Belgium) recently completed the Residency Programme in Jan Van Eyck Academie, a multiform institute for fine art, design and reflection in Maastricht. Her research focuses on the significance and the common lineage of objects displayed in various compositions, in particular the relationship and intersection between objects and their natural, metaphysical expression. Objects are transformed into sculptures and identified as functional entities. The functioning of the human mind as an inevitable mechanism that connects past, present and future is a recurring subject in her practice. Van Overmeiren creates various possibilities for different kinds of perception by creating and mixing different moods and cerebral conditions. In her sculptural work physical objects appear to exist in novel contexts or settings. Do artefacts need to be optimistic? It is a fairly complex task to try and figure out where the optimism may lie, as the object can be perceived as disturbing but at the same time transmit a positive and exhilarating effect.

Van Overmeiren has a background in Visual Arts, with a specialization in Sculpture, she completed her Masters degree
In Situ3 at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (2009–2013). During the same period, she developed a particular interest in scenography, which she pursued parallel with the liberal arts studies In Situ3. In 2017, she rounded off the six months Wiels Residency Programme in Brussels, resulting in a collaboration with Damien & The Love Guru where she presented ‘The Happy Inn’, exploring used found footage that she manipulated and reshaped through various mediums such as ceramic sculptures, video, drawings and installations. All the compounded objects were assembled in an ordered system resembling a matrix, in which the elements or entries she alluded to referred to abstract models inhabited by odd creatures.

At the 2015 edition of Art Brussels, she participated in an exhibition project entitled ‘120 Minutes’, a performative sculpture in the shape of an exhibition project. In the same year she presented an installation which she baptized ‘Shuffle Woe’ that consisted of a wooden wall-sized futuristic display case, ceramic pastel coloured lustrous objects, a sound sculpture and a video projection accompanied by geometric sculptures – in her first solo show at Annie Gentils Gallery in Antwerp. Van Overmeiren received the first prize for LabO, an art project initiated by ChampdAction and de Singel that was shown in a presentation entitled ‘Time Canvas’ (2013) at M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp.

At Hunting & Collecting, Brussels, Damien & The Love Guru invited Filip Vervaet and Van Overmeiren to collaborate on the installation ‘Ignorance is Strength’ (2014). The objects were displayed in the storefront, integrated as elements of the scenography, accompanied by a utopian image in a mythical rendering, while clues hinted at a political critique. Other group exhibitions include, ‘De Vierkantigste rechthoek’ (2014) at Kunsthal KAdE Amersfoort and Who’s Next’ (2009) curated by Belgian painter Koen van den Broek.