Koen Nelissen. Églomisé

Koen Nelissen is a Belgian polyvalent artist and violinist born in Mortsel in 1952. The artist studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Antwerp and then at the Ghent Conservatory, but ultimately chose not to pursue a professional career in music. Koen began designing toys and game programmes for a television production company and did not turn to art until he was in his 50s.

The artist's broad oeuvre now ranges from paintings and sculptures to performances and installations. The works address themes such as faith, frustration, refugees and the environment among others.

Central to Nelissen's practice is the rare technique of églomisé [reverse painting].

By using plexiglass as a canvas, the artist paints with unparalleled perspective and depth, establishing himself as a trailblazer of contemporary églomise in the world.

ERNEST VAN BUYNDER

Eglomisé or rear glass painting is an 18th-century painting technique.

Since 2012 Koen Nelissen has been creating églomisés that are innovative in both content and technique. Technically he used acrylic and spray paint and introduced plexiglass as a carrier. Formally there is a series of beautiful pure abstract works, sometimes informal, lyrical abstract, sometimes in the spirit of the so-called colorfield painting, a subdirection of constructivism, where vertical or horizontal denominations delimit colour strips. The American Barnett Newman (New York 1905 - New York 1970) has shaped this direction. In this difficult technique, Koen Nelissen creates a very beautiful abstract work.

It is to use the terms of Umberto Eco from his art philosophical work “Opera Aperta”, “open works of art”, to which the viewer can give his own interpretation. And according to Eco, they can or rather should be diverse, in order to describe a good work of art. For me, these abstract églomisés by Koen Nelissen are allegories of the universe, an investigation of the “absolute image”, of a metaphysical art.

Also special are the abstract églomisés, which lie between abstraction and figuration. I am thinking here of the églomisés which, in addition to abstract elements, also have a physical, sometimes architectural structure. And then there are the figurative images in their own realistic style, with numerous references to the music. Koen Nelissen has written a personal new chapter in églomisé art in Flanders.

Honorary President MuHKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp

Églomisé 100 x 70 cm

Églomisé mixed techniques 100 x 100 cm

Painting 30 x 40 cm

Mixed media 30 x 40 cm

Painting 30 x 40 cm