VEKS VAN HILLIK

PREMIERE FANTAISIE

feature

March 18th, 2022

​

Arch Enemy Arts is happy to present Veks Van Hillik’s Première Fantaisie, a selection of works created by the French artist over the last four years. Showcasing an array of media, the pieces display his signature imaginative creatures through tenebrous expressions in graphite, ink, and oil paint.

Exhibiting “the passage between classical references and the more fantastic and pop culture,” the feature consists of 20 artworks– each an emotive character rendered with the clever skill and playfulness that Veks is known for. Of the process and inspiration utilized here, he states:

“In the last few years, I've been lucky enough to be able to visit a few museums in Europe, not all of them, but a few all the same. And especially those which presented Flemish works and medieval gothic religious pieces. So I started to work on my technique by getting closer to this aesthetic. I thus privileged the work of superposition of transparent color in glaze. Even if I used it occasionally before in my process, today it has become much more present and systematic. Working in transparent layers allows a depth and a shimmer of the colors, and the plans (designs) much more sensitive.”

The collection shown in Première Fantaisie offers every hallmark of Veks’ unique style: emergent and punchy subjects lurching from the dark space of endless backgrounds, delicate and masterful landscapes with floating anthropomorphic figures, all made still by glassy eyes that stare ponderously at the viewer. To look into the eyes of his anomalous creatures is to enter their world, and the quiet strangeness of Van Hillik’s surreal pictures makes us all too willing to accept the invitation.

Première Fantaisie is Veks Van Hillik’s fourth solo feature with Arch Enemy Arts, and can be seen online and in person at now through April 18th, 2022.

​

-- writeup by Alexander Medlin II

​

Veks' PREMIERE FANTAISIE exhibition will be on view from March 18th - April 17th, 2022.
Sold works will begin to ship the week of March 14th, unless other arrangements have been made.

Items marked with a red dot have already been sold.

​