Looking into his light, 2003

More than ever, Jan Bollaert’s (1958) paintings stem from what he describes as ‘nostalgia for an imaginary past’. In his carefully constructed representations, he starts from film images and set photos from more than half a century ago. With razor-sharp precision, he depicts a fantasy world made up of passionate clichés that he enlarges to surrealist proportions and at the same time puts into perspective.

‘I am still a hopeless romantic, with all its advantages and disadvantages,’ admits Jan Bollaert. In his working method, he imitates the printing processes of old-fashioned magazines by setting up the image in black and white and then colouring it in with transparent layers of paint. This gives his paintings an unsurpassed impression of ‘authenticity’, which lures the viewer into Bollaert’s inviting make-believe world where clichés are revived and dreams come true – if only for a moment.

Jan Bollaert lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. He took drawing and sculpture courses at the Mortsel Art Academy and then studied graphic design and illustration at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp from 1985 to 1989.

Bollaert’s work has been exhibited several times in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United States.