Arcade is pleased to present the first of two two-person exhibitions conceived as conversations in sculpture between two cities and two galleries – Arcade (London) and Galerie Tatjana Pieters (Ghent). There is a strong sculptural and materially driven approach amongst the artists working with Pieters that has resonated with several artists in Arcade’s programme. In bringing together an artist from each city, the shows seek to examine this outlook and to unpick some of the similarities and differences. London based Esmeralda Valencia Lindström found particular affinities with Adriaan Verwée and the two have been sharing and developing their work and ideas for the show since last spring. ‘Other People’s Trades’ presents new works by each artist, intending not to recreate the artists’ discussions and mutual appreciations but instead to use each other as a lens through which to bring the works into focus and to uncover their oblique truths.

‘Animals had escaped out of the log, dropped down on the concrete floor in piles of saw dust to then make their way elsewhere. Whilst writing on the board with his right hand, his left hand had been drawing on his own t-shirt. Small dots marked the area around his left nipple. I see the interaction between objects, videos and other components as offering ways to reflect on social situations and encounters between people and objects. The work often carries a simultaneous sense of confrontation and withdrawal; in this way, it offers itself to the viewer as something to map, plot or measure – to work out his or her relationship with it, as with an object seen from a distance whose size is difficult to ascertain.” – Esmeralda Valencia Lindström

“It might be thought that the shift in Adriaan Verwée’s output is based on imaginary fragments of reality but may be critically examined by the imagination. The various works interact and yet they succeed in disseminating the various traces of an artistic process in a hinged and balanced way.” – Sofie Van Loo, from: ‘Adriaan Verwée’s abstract-realistic imagination is a fox burrow where Don Juan has spent the night and where Doña Juanita might wake up’ in Toca da Raposa, Posture Editions N°1