Collection: CHRIS VANDERSCHAEGHE

CHRIS VANDERSCHAEGHE

Works and lives in Oostende.

Chris explores the vulnerability of human existence and visualizes the transience of memories and experiences. His works create a harmonious interplay between soft skin tones and glossy layers of paint, with random lines challenging the viewer to embrace the abstract.⁠

The recent works of Chris Vanderschaeghe (BE, 1970) exude a subtle atmosphere of fragility. This fragility is evident in the delicacy of the image that attempts to capture the fleeting nature of a moment, as well as in his visualization of the vulnerability of human searching for stability. In each image, a figure appears or disappears into or from a dark and/or lighter thick painted lacquer layer. This contrasts the velvety soft and delicate texture of skin against the coldness of the glossy paint layer drawn over the painted image, sometimes highlighted by a random line or lines of spray paint that completely disrupt the viewer's gaze, thus strengthening the abstract element. In this contrast of painting techniques, there arises a struggle of each individual image for its own existence against fading or merging, much like a human memory in the continuous stream of experiences and impressions. It is from this stream of existing images such as photos, films, or series that Chris Vanderschaeghe draws his motifs, enhancing their vagueness and transience. However, at the same time, through a burst of recognizability, it sets the viewer on a path in their viewing.