Field, 2016

Isabel Devos  

Isabel Devos, Belgium Artist, graduated at the Kask & Conservatorium School of Arts Gent. After several years of functional work, she presented her 'Contemplative Landscapes' at Casa Argentaurum in Ghent, Belgium. In 2015, she was one of the laureates of Urbanautica Institute's portfolio review. In March 2017, she showed a selection of her images at Mi Galerie, Paris. 

The series 'Contemplative Landscapes' pushes the viewer on the border between human and nature to a point that made possible to imagine landscapes from single traces of water on sluices and shores, ready-made details, crops of reality. An expanded view of the world, a further dimension, more open and contemplative. As well said by Dieter Debruyne «by isolating these parts from its context, a peculiar and abstract image arises, referring to the possibility of a landscape and the multi-layered characteristics of a painting». This is not just meant to re-discover the universe in a microcosm; in this act of recognition of the beauty of nature there is something redeeming. «Because it's in our nature, humans tempt to control nature by building waterways, sluices, and artificial lakes. Hence nature reacts on these borders by leaving remnants behind.» The impact of certain artists is inevitable. 

Through photography Isabel gives us a pictorial view of the world, with an open and therefore contemplative mind. This is not just meant to re-discover the universe in a microcosm; in this act of recognition of the beauty of nature, there is something redeeming. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder people say. And maybe it is, and there is no artifice, bank, wall, or anything that can truly contain it. Her landscapes retain an expressionist attitude, with a reminder of the cross-references to the color field research of Rothko, the dull and somewhat dramatic palette of William Congdon landscapes, the attention on daily subjects of Richter, and the ability to mislead the viewer and to cause distraction on “what it is" of Rudolf Stingel. All these elements feed Isabel Devos's vision, an expressive synthesis of rare beauty. An operation of abstraction that is not new. Still the results of Isabel are impressive and of rare beauty.