“The studio of... Merel Van de Casteele”
— Gallery Viewer
Related exhibition: The Surface Holds No Secrets
“A moving dialogue between art, poetry & music that explores the human soul”
— Denderjournaal
Related exhibition: Anima Hominis
“Grenzeloze abstractie: een zoektocht naar het onbegrensde”
— Gallery Viewer
Related exhibition: Grenzeloze Abstractie
Visual artist in the field of painting, installation and sculpture.
My work explores the relationship between identity, privacy, and the mechanisms of social media. In contemporary society, digital platforms have become a dominant arena in which the self is constructed, performed, and circulated. These platforms blur the boundary between private and public life, turning personal expression into content, and identity into something fragmented, curated, and often commodified.
Through painting, I aim to capture this tension between visibility and erasure. The works address how individuals are reduced to signs, icons, or simplified representations of emotion, while the complexity of human experience remains hidden. I am interested in how the digital environment encourages both exposure and self-censorship: the constant pressure to be seen, combined with the simultaneous desire to protect what remains intimate.
My practice seeks to question how privacy survives in this context, and what forms of subjectivity are left when social media mediates almost every aspect of communication. The paintings operate as spaces of reflection, slowing down the fast circulation of images and offering moments of ambiguity where interpretation is left open.
In doing so, I aim not only to critique the impact of social media on identity, but also to search for alternative ways of representing the self—ones that acknowledge absence, opacity, and the importance of what cannot be fully shared.
Philippe Badert lives and works in Ostend, Belgium
He is without a doubt a thoroughbred or thoroughbred painter.
Badert seeks his inspiration in his everyday surroundings, in desolate cityscapes, with ordinary people in ordinary situations, often with a touch of nostalgia and with a certain mystique. As a source of inspiration, he uses existing photographic material from his youth, film stills, images from the Internet or from old magazines. The images that serve as a basis for his paintings often bear the scars of time.
He translates his impressions in a visually intriguing and personal way. He experiences the interpretation of his visual motives and subjects as a fascinating challenge. In his paintings, the aspect of space takes on a primordial role. His compositions are characterized by an architectural structure and a rather rigorous geometry.
In addition to the pronounced line perspective, he intensifies the suggestiveness of his images by using drop shadows, skimming light and image cut-offs that suggest a larger whole. He also applies these cut-offs in figurative representations.
Badert’s oeuvre does not allow itself to be inscribed in the effervescent vitality of the ‘urban realists’. He does not record dynamic, active snapshots, but creates images that leave a frozen or still impression. Philippe Badert is not an orthodox hyperrealist. His everyday shots depart from reality but never approach the coldness of photorealism. On his canvases there is sometimes an atmosphere of alienation, loneliness, and alienation. This arouses a sense of melancholy in the viewer. Not only the choice of subject but also the unusual colors determine the mood of his canvases. To achieve this result, it happens that he redevelops the photographs through a cyanographic process and then uses them as a basis for painting.
Philippe Badert is a tonality painter with a surprisingly rich color palette. In addition to neutral colors, he prefers a wide range of adulterated, mixed hues, which silently slip and merge into each other. For Philippe Badert, visual language is the tool of choice to capture those impressions, which cannot be captured in words.
Lieven Defour
Lieven Defour is a Belgian art historian and art critic. He writes about contemporary art and teaches at several Belgian art academies.
Painting – Kunstacademie aan Zee, Oostende
2021
16/10/2020-02/05/2021: Group exhibition – MinM Museum, Oostende (cancelled)
11/12/2020-10/01/20021: Salon des Artistes – Brugge
2021: ‘’Belgicart by curator Sam Dillemans – BOZAR, Brussel
15/05-31/12/2021: ‘Hallelujah!’ by Bart Ramakers and friends – Triamant, Bree
22/05/-06/06/2021: Art Ghent-Ronse – CC De Ververij, Ronse
02/07-05/09/2021: ‘It’s a miracle we ever met!’ – Stichting IJsberg, Damme
12/06-12/09/2021: Rerum Novarum, Lier
13/07-15/08/2021: De grote Ruutten, Oostende
23/07/2021-08/08/2021: Kasteel Fayard, Brugge
08/2021: Galerie Papillon, Oostende
01-03/10/2021: KeiArt – Chateau Fayard, Brugge
2020
2020: Group exhibition Air – Biekorf, Brugge
28/08-18/09/2020: Group exhibition Antichambre 2020 – Ensor
2020: Project ‘Behind the Glass’ – Jonas Vansteenkiste
07/07-20/09/2020: ‘Oooh verwondering’ group exhibition – Stichting IJsberg, Damme
26/09-04/10/2020: Group exhibition CAST 2020 – Kunst in Zottegem
09-10/2020: BAM festival des arts – La Roche
25/10-04/12/2020: Kop Op auction (Rode Neuzen Dag)
2019
2019: Group exhibition Air – Biekorf, Brugge
2019: Group exhibition ‘Sweet Seventy’ – CAS, Oostende
2019: Group exhibition – Square 42 Galerij, Oostende
2018
2018: Group exhibition – Plantentuin, Meise
2017
2017: Exhibition – Mercator, Oostende
2017: Exhibition ‘A la mer comme à la mer’ – Galerie Anmigo, Oostende
2017: Group exhibition – Lovendegem
2017: Group exhibition ‘Postcard from the edge’ – CAS, Oostende
2016
2016: Participation Duo – Mu.Zee, Oostende
2015
2015: Group exhibition – Fort Napoleon, Oostende
2015: Exhibition – N°75, Christinastraat, Oostende
2013
2013: Exhibition – Mercator, Oostende
2009
2009: Group exhibition – Zuivelfabriek, Blankenberge
2007
2007: Exhibition – Zoo, Antwerpen
Group exhibition – Box 38, Oostende
Kunstmagazine Nr. 8
Kunstmagazine Nr. 9
The Art Couch Kunstcahiers Zelfportretten
Catalog Air Biekorf 3.0
Catalog Air Biekorf 4.0
ABC Belgische kunstenaars 22
Kunstletters januari 22 – Mijn ritueel
2007: Winner contest Cartistic Vlaanderen
2017: Honorable mention Stan Raemdonck Award
2021: Finalist Belgicart
