BIOGRAPHY - Born 1977, Belgium
- Lives and works in Antwerp . Belgium
- Lecturer Bachelor and Master degree at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp . Belgium
EDUCATION 2003
- Post Aggregate . Royal Academy of Fine Arts . Antwerp . Belgium
2000
- MFA, St. Lucas . Antwerp . Belgium
The Belgian artist Inge Cornil develops an artistic practice in which the expansion of sensory boundaries and travel to diverse—often tropical—environments constitute the point of departure for her artistic research. Using the world as a mobile studio, her work originates from direct and concentrated observation, grounded in the discipline of drawing and painting. This sustained attentiveness forms the basis of a visual language in which light, colour, time and spatial experience operate as fundamental structuring elements. In series such as PACIFIC WORKS, OCEAN WORKS, EARTH WORKS, STUDIO WORKS and FIRE WORKS, these diverse experiences and dimensions are brought together within a coherent and research-driven body of work.
From an initial sketch or conceptual impulse, a layered process of reflection, experimentation and meaning-making unfolds, driven by the intention to materialise the transient and intangible as a document in time. In her Antwerp studio, memory and direct observation are translated into a universal visual language, where Cornil investigates with a high degree of precision the interaction between materiality, depth, light and stratification. Through the integration of physical and chemical processes and the application of multiple layers of pure pigments—combined with materials such as epoxy—a complex material structure emerges in which the boundary between two- and three-dimensional space becomes increasingly ambiguous.
The resulting works, often monumental in scale, are conceived in relation to the viewer’s experience and generate an immersive perceptual environment in which light and colour appear to be physically embedded within the material. Cornil’s work thus articulates the paradox of ephemerality and permanence within a single image: a fleeting moment is fixed as a reflection in time, while its perception remains contingent upon context, surrounding light and the position of the viewer. This spatial and material depth evokes a sense of infinity and invites a contemplative and sensory mode of engagement.
Cornil holds a Master in Fine Arts and has developed an international trajectory. Her work has been represented by various Belgian and international galleries and presented at leading art fairs and institutional venues, including Art Antwerp, Bozar Brussels, Art on Paper and the MADRE – Museum of Contemporary Art in Naples. Since 2003, she has been teaching observation and visual development at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, where her pedagogical activity is closely aligned with her artistic research.
PACIFIC WORKS
In April 2023, exactly 120 years after Paul Gauguin's death, Inge Cornil follows his footsteps to the Marquesas Islands in FrenchPolynesia, one of the most remote archipelagos in the South Pacific, where nature exerts an additional force, called Ie mana, on humans. Her artistic research involves a challenging route, where distance and time take on other dimensions. The artist completely isolates herself in this rugged and mystical nature to collide with the limits of human perception and transform the experience created in the deep jungle, on a boat and in the ocean, and amidst the wild landscape into a visual language en pIein air.
PACIFIC WORKS is created in the artist's studio, looking back at memories but this time from a Western perspective. We see/experience nature on a scale that transcends human dimensions. The painter moves from close-ups to wide-angle longshots, of the sea and its depths, through atmospheric layering and past tropical cloudbursts. Cornil does not follow 'the law of perspec-tive' but takes the viewer into the deeper layers of nature. The infinite landscapes of the Marquesas Islands were also the location where Gauguin found and created his connection with 'the wild'.
The artist's personal palette connects light and colour in a play of pure pigments. The series of artworks is composed of a layered process of at least 100 layers of natural pigments on canvas. Throughout the material, the landscape is variously illuminated by sunlight, tropical atmospheres and weather conditions. Light itself is thus a major subject in her work and gives the landscapes their own independence and individuality.
STUDIO WORKS
In the STUDIO WORKS series, Inge Cornil focuses on 'the artist's studio as visual motive'. The series gives an insight into the artistic process and the usually hidden world of the artist: brushes in pots, bags of pigments, congealed paint drops and fragments on sketching paper. The compositions in this series show an ordered chaos: a place where props seem to be chaotically mixed together, but have been placed organically during the working procedure.
The painting process is transformed into drawing language, perception and abstraction are translated into a play of light and shadows in charcoal on paper. The assemblages consist of drawings mounted on paper-wrapped wooden blocks, and overlaid with multiple layers of epoxy and pigments, with a uv lacquer finish.
The three-dimensional sculptural works with individual quotations form a time document showing the design process at specific benchmarks.
Text: P. Decancq
FIRE WORKS
The latest series FIRE WORKS deals with the intangibility and ephemerality of fireworks. Often, fireworks are positively associated with revelry, inaugurations and momentum.
The intangibility of fireworks is also its enigma: in a brief, dazzling moment, the sky is grandly and impressively lit up with light and color, only to disappear immediately afterwards as if it never happened. The sincere astonishment of the spectator is immediately plunged into oblivion. Afterwards, it is often difficult to describe the fleeting beauty and the observation results in fragments of memories.
Inge Cornil's artistic research documents this ambiguity and captures the discord through observation. She brings these fragments together in an assembled design and then translates them into a charcoal drawing pressed on wood. Finally, each work is overlaid with epoxy, transparent pigments suggesting the play of light in a process of multi-layering. The artistic treatment takes the intangible and compresses it into a time document of solidified eruption.
Text: P. Decancq
EARTH WORKS . SEA WORKS . OCEAN WORKS
Inge Cornil is strongly inspired by the regeneration process on planet earth as a result of the impact of mass consumption on the natural environment. The painter focusses on the battlefield where beauty, economy and ecology constantly meet and clash.
As an artist, she wants to break open the hinterlands of pristine settings in order to expose and raise awareness. EARTH WORKS, SEA WORKS and OCEAN WORKS reveal the toxic ‘cloudiness’ in the transparent waters of earth’s seas and oceans.
Each artwork is dynamically composed of 50 till 100 layers of natural pigments, combined with liquids on canvas. The layered presentation of matter showcases the scars of the painting, and is reminiscent of earth’s tattoos caused by the chemical interaction of matter. Her paintings exhibit an intricate play between observation and concealment, and between knowledge and ignorance. The monumental character of the paintings makes it possible for the viewer to connect with the story.
Text: P. Decancq