Denis Deprez

In the early 1990s, Denis Deprez sent shockwaves through the new comic strip world thanks to his narrative and graphic adventures as a member of the Brussels collective Frigo Production.  A passionate fan of literature, whose albums were already focused on seeking out the meaning of life, he revived the myths of Frankenstein, Othello and Moby Dick with a few strokes of his expressionist brush before going on to try his hand at watercolour and illustrating Les Champs d'honneur, the book which won Jean Rouaud the Goncourt Prize.
Denis Deprez's artistic practice has always chimed with the worlds of nature and of family. Today, the Belgian artist, born in 1966, exposes his very heart and soul in his painting. His canvases open on to vast sweeping landscapes where water, wind and rock defy the very passage of time. These are works that invite contemplation, works in which the artist depicts the fractured state of our world.  Deprez is a radical artist, an artist of the invisible, in search of serenity, with a self-confessed passion for exploring hitherto unsuspected forms and colours. He feels the need to fill his lungs with air, and to be constantly exposed to new sights.
A proponent of true art, like Rembrandt, Deniz Deprez is moving in his work towards a total paring down.
His brush eschews artifice, seeking to empty the image of all human presence, all the better to see the light, the world, time itself.
His paintings are imbued with an impressionistic melancholy, offering up to the viewer quietly serene landscapes and subtly refined colours.