Biographie

Bernard Verstraete

Born in Brussels in 1966, my perspective was first shaped by the duality of two contrasting horizons: The telluric, mineral power of the Swiss Valais stood against the wooded softness of the Brussels outskirts. From this childhood spent between rock and sap emerged a need to translate the world. It was a need to transmute raw emotion into image and matter.

My journey began with the mastery of light. From the IATA in Namur to the halls of INSAS in Brussels, I learned the grammar of the frame and the discipline of the eye. For years, behind the lens of a documentary camera, I practiced the art of the « affût »—the patient watch. I captured the moment, composing with the vagaries of light, and inhabiting the space of the shot. This school of patient observation continues to nourish the genesis of my visual works today.

For a long time, my life was a geographical and emotional oscillation between the effervescence of film sets in Brussels and the contemplation of my studio in La Palma. I made this Canary Island my laboratory of solitude. It was there, between the ocean and the volcano, that a slow metamorphosis took place, toward « l’épure »—the essential.

Since 2016, after exploring graphic design and digital creation, I have moved away from the movement of images. I now favor the vibration of the line. My current work, almost calligraphic in nature, seeks a suspended balance. Form no longer limits, but becomes the breath itself. I call my creations « hypnographs. »

Upon the pristine white of the medium, I surrender to a compass-less wandering. It is a drift where the desire for a result fades before the purity of the gesture. What emerges are interlacings of « near-chance, » archipelagos of signs. They oscillate between ideograms and figurative reminiscence. It is a territory of dreams and enigmas where reality chooses to slip away.


Expositions / Exhibitions

  • 2026, Parcours d’Artistes, Bruxelles
  • 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