Mattis Van Schuylenbergh

Lives and works in Aalst (BE)

As a member of a renowned family of artists, art teacher Mattis Van Schuylenbergh began painting in 2010. His style evolved during the years from portraiture and detailed literal painting to abstract work in strong contrast between light and dark.

Influenced by the work of the classical and detailed style of Renaissance and Baroque artists such as Caravaggio and Velázquez, his realistic and detailed oil paintings (especially Mattis’ cityscapes and portraits) lead him towards the clair obscure technique.

The series of works inspired by gold foils, a protective survival blanket, contain as a central concept the study of light and reflection. Gold foils are handed out in victim aid to generate heat, but have little intrinsic value despite their prestigious views. They are depicted as a beautiful tangible object, which makes it alienating, or elevated in detail into an abstract scene. The sculpted subjects, usually in bold contrasts affecting a whole composition are intriguing monochrome portraits provide a platform for the psychological approach of the object: introspective induced by obscuring the object, making it unobservable.