Bio/Statement
I started my artistic career in 1994 at the age of 10 when I enrolled in the local music school of Kampenhout, a village in Belgium where I grew up. Though I did express early interest in the world of photography, being the only one in the family to use the cameras at home, music became my first passion. At 14 I started touring internationally with a band that later would become Los Venturas and would last for 25 years, releasing 6 albums and touring worldwide. This paved the way to becoming an expert in playing surf music. In the pursuit of becoming a more versatile drummer, throughout the years I played with numerous other bands, including Chatz Kostas, Masala, Jobee Project, Venusberg,… while starting a teaching career at Class & Jazz, a private music school in Kampenhout. In 2009 I graduated as a science teacher and started teaching mathematics at Sint-Lukas art school Brussels, where I would stay until 2018.
After living for a couple of years in Antwerp on a boat called “Nomadic”, my life became nomadic. I moved to Italy in 2018 and, pursuing the dream of becoming a full time musician, started touring with Italian artist Surfer Joe. At the same time a Nikon D5300 was gifted to me, and so photography entered my life again at a pivotal moment. I soon felt that interpreting the world around me with a camera was fulfilling a need that had been growing. When shortly thereafter the world shut down because of the pandemic and life on stage halted for undetermined time, the camera kept me focused and purposeful. I used the time to deepen my knowledge and through various courses, workshops and private teachings I slowly ventured into the world of analog photography and printmaking.
In 2021 my path led me to Brussels, where I fully adopted the photographic practice as part of my artistic language, while continuing to explore the world as a touring musician. Still in the pursuit of growing, I was able to enroll in the Sint-Lukas Academy, thus becoming a student in the place where I had been a teacher for years.However, bigger forces kept on stirring up my life and in 2023 my path led me to Santa Barbara, CA, where I have found fertile ground to thrive and deepen my artistic practice.
The inspiration for my work comes from moving throughthis world, in and out of different narratives, often in the sidelines of the script. I am drawn to the stories that create the realities in which people live, but I find solace in the enigmatic catacombs of the physical world surrounding us, where chaos manifests itself as a result of massive cosmic forces. This duality serves as a common thread and motor for my artistic research. Photography as a representational art form allows me to collect visual clues, like empirical data, showing the relativity of each point of view, inviting the observer to a place of contemplation where the mainstream reality can be assessed.
I have enjoyed teachings and guidance by Niccolò Chimenti, Franco Guardascione, Liesbet Grupping, Ann Gewillig, Patricia Clarke and others. My work has been shown in various group exhibitions and has been published as an edition by the exhibition of Jose Montealegre at Klosterruine Berlin in 2021. Later that year I won a contest by De Donkere Kamer and was able to pitch my research on Black Marble during one of their events. In 2022 I showed the results of that work in a solo exhibition at Sint-Lukas Academy Brussels. As a continuously evolving and researching artist, I am grateful for every opportunity that helps me expand my artistic horizon.
Exhibitions
2023
November 18 ++ Community Arts Workshop, Santa Barbara, CA (USA) – Ready To Hang , Group Exhibition
2022
March 8 – 11 ++ Sint-Lukas Academy, Brussels (BE) – Noir Obscur, Solo Exhibition
October 15 – 23 ++ MArteLive Biennial, Rome (IT) – Group Exhibition
2021
June 10 ++ Riposo @ Villa Schifanoia, Fiesole (IT) – Group Exhibition
July 1 – 6 ++ Chania International Photo Festival, Chania (GR) – Group Exhibition
July 5 – 11 ++ Prospettiva Serre, Firenze (IT) – Group Exhibition
19 August – 19 September ++ Klosterruine, Berlin (DE) – Works featured in Vivero Enredado by José Montealegre.
2020
Passepartout Photo Prize Rome – Online Gallery
Publications
2023
Calendar 2024 – Edition of 50 – Self published
2022
Calendar 2023 – Edition of 50 – Self published riso print
2021
Calendar 2022 – Edition linked to Vivero Enredado exhibition by José Montealegre and published by BOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE.