I am an Antwerp-based visual artist, mainly working in painting, printmaking and everything in between. Artistic results are often hybrids and would be labeled as mixed-media artworks.
In 2015, I graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (Belgium); in 2018, I qualified as an art therapist (Artveldehogeschool Gent, Belgium). The past years, my trajectory has been characterized by the exchange of working as a visual artist and art therapist in psychiatry.
A fundamental part of my work consists of researching the subject, which serves as the basis for paintings and graphic arts. Sometimes research can take the form of collecting photographic material (both found and self-made) or working with AI generated images based on the collected photographic material. Material technical research is moreover key to what I do. Actual material studies using paint, prints and drawings are important to look at the studied subject from different angles.
Thematically, different subjects have my interest. During my time at the Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, I was fascinated by sacrality and monumentality in everyday life. I especially found echoes of this fascination in large man-made structures, such as: hotels, ports, construction sites, highway overpasses etc. This theme remained important in later work (e.g. Contemporary Temples) when my focus shifted towards architecture and urban areas.
During my training as an art therapist at Arteveldehogeschool Ghent (Belgium), I came into contact with Psychoanalytic theory. Concepts, such as ‘the uncanny’, over time found their place in my works.
This, for example, by depicting extra large, alienating urban environments. To further achieve this, I play with the thin line between recognizability and abstraction, which thus became a typical methodology within my work. Finding a way to convey the felt uncanny and the resulting alienation caused by such places is an ongoing research that will probably never end.
My latest works (Oneloners) follow a different approach. While the themes mentioned above remain prominent, an extra layer is added using text, exploring the interaction between words and images. While my past series can evoke a more sterile or desolate atmosphere, my ongoing work researches qualities such as absurdity and playfulness.
I hope this introduction gives some insight into my practice and adds something to the works without reducing them too much to words. Feel free to get in touch for further exchange and information.