Koen Vanstappen

Lives and works in Brussels (BE)

For Koen Vanstappen, the most important thing about a painting is what it does not show — the silent charge that lingers beyond the visible.

Equally essential is its music: the rhythm, tempo and resonance carried by colour and gesture. His work is guided by mistakes, fluctuations and small deviations from the
expected; he captures them and makes them visible, because they are fundamental to the creation of art.

A painting is successful when the image comes to life through the play of the paint, and when that play of paint takes on meaning through the power of
the image. He constantly blurs the boundaries between digital and physical processes, transforming residual material from the studio into new work and circulating images via screens, prints and cut-outs.

More than patterns themselves, he is fascinated by our fascination with patterns, and he questions their persistent presence in a world saturated
with repetition. A pattern only becomes interesting when it mutates, when it reveals decay, absurdity or the remnants of what remains.

To expose the bluntness of banality, he places it in the spotlight, aware that every work of art is a reflection of the world and can therefore never be apolitical.

Because ultimately, for Vanstappen, the political dimension of a painting is the most essential — precisely because it lies in what remains invisible.