JEAN-FRANÇOIS DEBONGNIE
Born in Brussels in 1968. Painter. Self-taught. First went to Asia in 1989. He then travelled to Thailand and Malaysia before settling in Singapore for more than ten years. JEAN-FRANÇOIS DEBONGNIE started his family there by marrying a Singaporean woman and is now the father of four children.
Divided between Brussels, his hometown, and Singapore, his adopted home, the artist JEAN-FRANÇOIS DEBONGNIE admits to having nurtured a particular attraction to Asia since his childhood. It is therefore no coincidence that his paintings, mainly Chinese inks on acrylic washes, show an Asian influence.
Omnipresence of the vegetal element, and particularly of flowers. The artist brings flowers to life by representing them in an iconographic way, capturing the aesthetic rather than botanical qualities of a flower and integrating them into an often wild landscape. The fluidity of the flower stems, which dance on the canvas like a celebration of life, creates an impression of movement.
His art combines the richness of both Oriental and Western art. « When I first arrived in Singapore, I went to galleries to see paintings by local artists, but I found them too traditional. I liked the technique, but I wasn't attracted to the representations – the typically Chinese landscape paintings, I would prefer something more abstract, more modern ».
The artist's works
