Cafe? Orange, 2024

Murielle Vanhove  

Growing up Murielle Vanhove observed the comings and goings of people in her parents’ parisian Bar. During the rush hours unknown people jostling and passing each other, a frenetic rhythm that fascinated this little girl hidden behind her sketch book.

During her further Education studies at ESAG Penninghen, she experienced a complete education in painting, drawing and photography which led her to working with publicity agencies. Ten years experience of creativity gave her the opportunity to fully realise projects for a wide audience. Later on Murielle became involved with teaching. Rapidly there followed the need to resume the motions, the gestures and the feelings of paint on canvas.

Her paintings reveal in bright colors, mixtures of people who appear and disappear under her light and vivid touch. Murielle catches a moment, a slight movement of time. Meetings, unknown people, people in a hurry and others who stroll about. People enter the frames as entering onto a stage but are completely anonymous. The lack of faces can either be a surprise or an attraction. The attitudes speak for themselves.

Murielle captures an instant moment in time, one she has seen, a pedestrian crossing the road, a woman walking in the sun. On the canvas she strongly fixes the grace of a movement, the elegance of a body. Crowds move in a precise and energetic way. She plays with rhythms and colors. Light appears on the canvas to assume all its place.

Like her characters, Murielle progresses in a world that is forever changing. Snapshots of our time, details of clothing, marks of our society. She meets a fleeting moment in time that then fades away. Her paintings describe daily events, people who pass by our active lives.

Murielle Vanhove paintings are collected in New York, London, Brussels, Basel, Hong Kong, Paris.