Johan Van Mullem
About Johan Van Mullem
Born in Congo in 1959, Johan Van Mullem lives and works in Belgium.
Since his youth, Johan Van Mullem has been searching for beauty, which he recognises in an experience engraved on faces and hands.
Since then, the face has remained the main subject of his work, but over time he reverses the imprint of the face on his own face, while his subjects seem to grow
younger, disappear or are born in a halo of light, offering the eye an escape into the
world of emotion. A spontaneous, unreflected, authentic expression to fulfil his vocation, to become himself.
His autodidactic mastery of the specific and unique technique of his work, executed exclusively in intaglio (an extension of his experience as an engraver), gives his work
additional depth. The layering and erasing of the many smooth layers of diluted ink further accentuates this sense of indescribable presence on the canvas.
Johan Van Mullem lets it happen without knowing it. He works on his paintings with all his heart and never takes them back. Some are erased in places, details are erased here and emphasised there. Sometimes the whole seems to emerge from the support like an apparition.
His paintings are entirely intuitive, rising from the collective subconscious into the light of consciousness. This painting process takes place in several layers. Each layer is then erased to give life to a new layer, which in turn disappears, and so on, until the painter reaches the last layer, which he takes for granted.
This last phase retains the unconscious traces of all the previous ones. Just as every living being retains traces of the various stages it has passed through.
Johan's work is exhibited internationally and can be found in many important collections.
Born in Congo in 1959.