INGE CORNIL

BIOGRAPHY                          - Born 1977, Belgium

                                                - Lives and works in Antwerp . Belgium

EDUCATION                           2003

                                                - Post Aggregate . Royal Academy of Fine Arts . Antwerp . Belgium

                                                 2000

                                                - MFA, St. Lucas . Antwerp . Belgium

                                                 1998

                                                - BFA, St. Lucas . Antwerp . Belgium

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.

3D installation: charcoal drawing on Khadi cotton paper, wood, epoxy, pigments, uv varnish.

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