About

Bernard Verstraete artiste à Bruxelles

One day in May 1966, a family from Earth saw a flying object from elsewhere land and drop off a package containing me. Three years later, for the first time I used pencils and brushes, earthly tools with a frightening appearance but with endless potential. From then on I was attracted to a form of communication that humans call “Art”.
The years that followed were made up of learning about life on Earth, called schooling, which consists of a long period during which young earthlings are placed in children’s enclosures. During which many things are instilled in him, mostly useless, which he will forget later. Numerous notebooks were filled with drawings, much to the annoyance of the teachers. In the Final years of Secondary school, in the Art classes : pencils and brushes got to work.
Graduate from the INSAS art college in Brussels in 1989.
Despite all the adventures that have followed since, pencils have never been idle for long… Since 2016 they have been back to work full-time. My artistic work is essentially graphic, almost calligraphic. I seek a balance of play between color and line, in which the form is defined by the line. This exploration leads me to consider mixtures of techniques and supports, which can combine, for example, engraving and airbrushing, canvas or plexiglass engraved with a drypoint. I seek to lose myself completely in an aimless stroll on the white of the paper or canvas, forgetting the desire to arrive somewhere. This approach often results in swirls of « almost chance », between the ideogram and the figuration, something that is at the same time dreamlike, enigma and reality.


Expositions / Exhibitions
  • 2017, Individuelle, Upup Gallery, Bruxelles
  • 2001, Collective, Aeropuerto Internacional de La Palma, Espagne
  • 2001, Individuelle, Casona del Alférez Salvador Caceres, El Paso, La Palma, Espagne
  • 2000, Individuelle, El Grial, Ibiza, Espagne
  • 1999, Collective, Fería Internacional de Muestra de Arte de Tazacorte (FIMAT), La Palma, Espagne
  • 1998, Individuelle, Casa de la Cultura, Los Llanos, La Palma, Espagne
  • 1998, Individuelle, Aeropuerto Internacional de La Palma, Espagne
  • 1998, Collective, Fería Internacional de Muestra de Arte de Tazacorte (FIMAT), La Palma, Espagne
  • 1997, Individuelle, Les Ateliers d’Alexandra, Bruxelles
  • 1997, Collective, Galerie Victoria, La Palma, Espagne
  • 1996, Individuelle, Ambiente, La Palma, Espagne
  • 1995, Sala O’Daly, Santa Cruz de la Palma, Espagne