Charles de Bisthoven

(b. 1992, Liège, Belgium) now lives and works between Rome and Berlin after having studied at the ESA Saint Luc Liège, at the Universitatea de Artă și Design din Cluj-Napoca and at the  Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Jana Matejko, in Kraków, Poland. The artist invites the viewer to immersion in a playful, tumultuous world where narratives interlace in drawings and clay models, in dramatic landscapes and scenes of introspection.  

Aesthetically, his works are rooted in broad visual history in all its colorful diversity: from old masters to advertising, from baroque to cartoons; from roman frescoes to video games. The scenes displayed in paintings and drawings are surrealistic yet analogue the movements of the contemporary world: Ruins move and speak, wind hoots and the great theatre of humans goes on.

• Education
• 2011-2013
  • BA, École Supérieure des Arts Saint Luc in Liège, Belgium, Drawing, Graphic Novel Department
• 2013-2017
  • MA, University of Art and Design from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Painting Department
• 2016
  • Erasmus, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Jana Matejki in Kraków, Poland, Drawing, Painting and Intermedia Department

• Selected exhibitions
• 2023
  • Ghosts Whisper Loud and Clear, group show, Zina Project Space, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
• 2022
  • La Grande Bouffe, group show, Lovaas Projects, Munich, Germany
• 2018
  • Weißes Blut und Roter Schnee, group show, Anaid Galerie, Berlin, Germany
• 2017
  • Smooth Sailing, duo show with Natalia Ledzianowska, Galeria Malarstwa ASP, Kraków, Poland

• 2016
  • Sky Valley, IAGA Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
  • Gesture Drawings, duo show with Mia Štark, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
• 2015
  • Peintures, dessins, gravures, Galerie Wégimont, Liège, Belgium
• 2014
  • Museographics, group show, Liège, Belgium
  • L’Inde sous le pinceau et la plume de deux frères, group show, Galerie Saint-Luc, Liège, Belgium
• 2013
  • The Sketchbook Project, Brooklyn, New York, USA
  • Hot Dogs: L’amour et ses dérives, group show, L’enseigne du Commissaire Maigret, Liège, Belgium
  • Lettres-Images, group show with the collective „L’Articho“, Liège, Belgium