Kevin DOUILLEZ

Kevin Douillez (1990)

A self-taught visual artist, Kevin Douillez has been building a coherent narrative in dialogue with matter for several years. His work has been exhibited in Brussels, Los Angeles, Singapore and Madrid. He lives and works in the south of Brussels.

Although he has always had a taste for earth, it is in the vehemence of the gesture that he tames his inner impulses. As accomplices, the contact is made by embracing, to the point of exhaustion, with a view to externalising internal ills.

Free to experiment, Kevin Douillez approaches the abstract imagination in the form of purgatory. Projected, exploded and incised, the layers of acrylic paint respond to each other to build a new balance out of disorder.

The disorder is a charge, a disturbance, a life to be purified. Noise, movement, vulnerability, instability, sadness and anguish are transformed by this action into ordered silence. In the guise of a meditation, the act of painting becomes an introspective, emotional journey, the main object of which is the search for light. In this sense, the large, raw format of his cotton canvases is chosen with care; they capture and allow us to welcome the frenetic aggressiveness of this conflict between matter and spirit.

In his metaphysical quest, Kevin Douillez depicts his subject through confrontation and permeability, as if it were inhabited. To see the artist paint is to witness a performance, a trance, a catharsis, where the pain experienced is unloaded and reveals unsuspected light. As they emerge, they give his work the appearance of a diary, where the states of mind are anonymised; they belong to the past.

These states touch on oblivion and allow Kevin Douillez to coexist with his pain.

Starting out as a personal quest, the visual result opens up new avenues. Through the colourful, seductive and shimmering aspects that appear, the artist uses mixed techniques to reveal a new world in which plastic balance gives an extra presence, a moment of serenity. For the public, the search for a historical context, the construction of a path, a form of narrative in these intertwined works is almost impossible; the colourful and luminous appearance is deceptive if we disregard the spiritual context in which these works emerge.

In the same way, the titles do not tell us anything about the artist's stigma. All that remains are the traces of atonement and the musical notes that resonate in the studio.

Without operating in a serial manner, his work brings out themes in which the impression of nature, the opening up to another world, the repetition of forms and gestures give major importance to the act of painting.

Escapism through abandonment and the search for inner peace appear to be her two main motivations. These are exercises in mindfulness that enable the artist to channel the visions of her mind. They are strong, haunting and drive him to find a final balance, peace; they become, incessantly, the guides to his action, the rites of his daily life.

Anthony Spiegeler