'paintings, Henry Whysall'
Expositie van 23 augustus t/m 4 september 2025.
Open van dinsdag t/m zaterdag van 10u - 18u, zondag en maandag op afspraak.
Tuesday until Saturday: open from 10am until 6pm and by appointment on Sunday and Monday.
Henry Whysall (b. 1977, Antwerp) discovered his love for art early, inspired by a childhood trip to Florence and the guidance of encouraging teachers. After winning the International Baccalaureate art prize, he began studying architecture at Heriot-Watt University before embracing painting fulltimeat Saint Martins College of Art in London. There, he shifted from figurative work to
experimental process painting, blending wax, plaster, and pigment while subtly echoing the human form.
Based for years in East London, Henry drew inspiration from science, exploring visual links between microscopic and cosmic structures. His practice is rooted in a deep appreciation for the sensuality and poetry of materials.
A move to Venice in 2015 brought new influences—Byzantine mosaics, religious iconography, and the vibrant tones of Murano glass—reflected in richly coloured, small-scale works. Returning to Antwerp in 2019, he revisited monochrome with expressive ‘grisaille’ paintings, before reintroducing bold colour in 2022. His recent abstractions form intricate, textured landscapes—a
culmination of years of exploration.
In 2024, Henry settled into a new studio in Antwerp’s historic centre, where he continues to evolve his vibrant, material-driven practice.
‘In my painting, I’m drawn to creating complexity wrapped in the guise of simplicity—a surface that entices, like a glimpse of an ankle, inviting the viewer to look deeper. This impulse stems from a long-standing fascination with anatomy: the idea of intricate systems concealed just beneath a membrane.”
“Painting finds its vitality in matter itself. It becomes a pursuit of a beauty that is always shifting—never fixed.
Between the microscopic and the monumental, surfaces emerge layered like living topographies.While traditional symbols may appear, they often lose their sacred weight, becoming instead evocative forms—glimmering, melancholic, and sensual. Ultimately, painting is a space where abstraction allows the raw poetry of materials to speak, to vibrate, to resonate beyond language.”
‘Painting can sometimes read like a sample—an entity detached from its origin, yet self-contained and autonomous. Even when modest in scale, a painted surface can evoke a sense of vastness. Crumpled, planetary-like terrain may shift into diseased flesh; the geological slowly merges with the cellular and bodily. These contradictory impressions are woven into a single image—a Frankensteinian patchwork of forms and associations.”