°1975, Antwerp, Belgium

Lives and works in Belgium

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Statement

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The essence of all art (and life) is light.

As without light, there will be no color, no shape and no life.

From Caravaggio, to Claude Monet’s Rouen Cathedral and the installations with fluorescent tubes of Dan Flavin, all art, intentionally or unconsciously is in fact an attempt to capture light. Accordingly, the fundamental nature of art is “light painting”.

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My work, therefore, is a combination of the three basic essentials: light, color, shape. Light itself and color in the form of both (neon) light and paint, all to portray the perceptible shape of things. All shapes are in fact reducible to abstraction, because abstraction is only a question of focus.  Abstraction is, in my opinion, a philosophical quest of the soul of things.

 

For the light in my work, I frequently use primary and pure colors as a reference to the basic (alchemist) elements, and paint is, as a matter of fact, chemistry. I prefer neon glass, mainly because of the quality and magic of the light and the exceptional long lifespan of neon. The fascinating thing about neon light is that it allows to create an atmospheric spatial effect.

 

The wiped out paint sections symbolize the transience of everything, because in time all will fade and blur into oblivion and be reduced to nothing. Otherwise it's a metaphor for chaos that is contrasted by hard-edges which symbolizes order & structure.

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