Ingrid Ledent: Continuum Ininterrompu (Uninterrupted Continuum)
April 2 - 25, 2009.

Ingrid Ledent, Continuum Ininterrompu II, stone lithography & digital print on Zerkall paper,
100cm x 130cm, 2008, courtesy of the artist

Continuum Ininterrompu, a solo exhibition by Belgian artist Ingrid Ledent, was presented at Open Studio from April 2 to 25, 2009.

Influenced by the philosophy of Henri Bergson, Continuum Ininterrompu investigated perceptions of time and the difference between time as a physical phenomenon and time as a personal experience. According to Barbara Balfour in the accompanying essay, Ledent’s installation—printed in a restrained palette of red and black—“draws in the viewer from the open doors of Open Studio into the gallery, as side chapels lead to an apse or boxes in an opera house lead to the stage.”

Primarily working in lithography, Ledent is attracted to the potential for physical and chemical transformation and the opportunities for reworking and reprinting. The work presented in Continuum Ininterrompu, some of which has been reworked and overprinted from previous incarnations, attempts to capture Bergson’s notion of “duration.” In Ledent’s work, the dual realities of the perception of the present and the memory of the past coexist and fuse with each other in an uninterrupted continuum.

Ledent, who teaches lithography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, has exhibited extensively throughout the world, including shows in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America; this is her first exhibition in Toronto.

To download a PDF copy of the exhibition brochure, please click here. In order to view PDF documents, you will need to have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your computer.

Ingrid Ledent was born in 1955 in Brasschaat (Belgium). She studied graphic art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp (1973-1978), then specialized in lithography for one year in Rudolf Broulim's studio at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague (Czech Republic). In 1981 she obtained a Masters Degree at the National Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp. She has also attended numerous international workshops in different techniques.

Ledent has been professor of lithography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp since 1984. She has led lithography workshops at the Academy of Fine Arts in Turku (Finland), the University of Santa Cruz in Tenerife (Spain), the Academy of Fine Arts in Hasselt (Belgium), the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (Poland), the University of Tianjin (China), the printshop “Daglicht” in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) and at the Frans Masereel Center in Kasterlee (Belgium). She was invited as member of a panel at the Southern Graphics Council conference at the University of Austin, Texas (USA) and at Rudgers University in New Jersey (USA) She has given lectures at the University of Shenzhen and Tianjin (China), the Artist Association in Tallinn (Estonia) and at the Association of Finnish Lithographers in Helsinki (Finland).

Barbara Balfour is a Toronto-based artist who has exhibited prints, multiples, and installations nationally and internationally. An Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at York University in Toronto, she teaches print media and theory courses. Her current research deals with artists’ writing, within and parallel to art production.

Upcoming activities include the solo exhibition méthode champenoise in the Project Room, York Quay Gallery, and a Sunday Scene talk about the work of Carey Young at the Power Plant, Toronto (2009). Recent activities include the Ex Libris multiple launch at Art Metropole, Toronto (2009); and group exhibitions Almost Nothing at akau (Toronto), El Ultimo Libro/The Last Book at the National Library of Argentina (Buenos Aires), Vehicle at Nuit Blanche (Toronto), the Edmonton Print International (Edmonton) and Titles, traveling to second-hand bookstores in Canada and the USA (2008).

Balfour was introduced to Ledent through their involvement in Richard Noyce’s international survey Printmaking at the Edge, leading to their participation in the 2007 Falun Print Triennial in Sweden. In Falun, Balfour and Ledent discussed their shared love of lithography and the lithographs on display in the local grocery store.