Albert Willem
Albert Willem is a contemporary Belgian artist who lives and works near Brussels. He is best known for his naïve-styled paintings rich with wit and humour. He has been storming the art world ever since he transferred the absurd images from his head onto his canvas.
To view more of Albert’s work, please visit his website, Instagram or contact him at rocestbeau@yahoo.com. To read Albert’s autobiography, download here.
About:
Albert Willem is best known for his witty paintings and childlike technique. Willem drew a lot as a child, but never touched a pencil from the ages of 12 to 36. During this artistic hiatus he was distracted by other interests, mainly sports. He never had any formal art training. However, he often visited galleries and museums, and was constantly looking at art on social media. About four years ago, Willem decided to paint something to decorate his own home. He enjoyed it, and has not stopped painting since. All of his spare time goes towards his art. Over the years, he has experimented with a variety of mediums and styles; from nail polish to spray paint to textile art. Nowadays, Willem primarily works with acrylic paint coupled a high gloss varnish. He finds that these results in the strongest colours. Most of his works are on canvas, but the artist also recycles cardboard from online purchases to use as his base. His artistic process is quick. He completes his works within 48 hours at most, and then it must be finished one way or another.
At the beginning of 2020, the artist began to post his small figurative works on Instagram, where his art was warmly received. He has continued to engage audiences on that platform ever since, and has grown quite popular.
Man Put the Garbage Bag Out, 30 x 40 cm, 2020
Willem’s subjects are always humorous. The artist intentionally avoids heavy or profound themes. His works will show an ironic or larger-than-life moment, like The Boxing Match where everybody is fighting except the boxers. He often depicts dancing figures.
Willem says ‘I do not strive for perfection, on the contrary, I try to avoid it because otherwise it undermines the humour.’
The Boxing Match, 80 x 100 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2021
Willem credits social media as the largest influence on his artistic practice. He spends at least two hours everyday looking and learning from other artists. He says that by regularly seeing new art, his art is constantly evolving. He is continuously experimenting with new styles, themes and techniques.
‘Try out all kinds of things yourself and then you will eventually arrive at a personal style.’ - Willem
Willem says a number of local Flemish artists serve as inspiration for his work. He admires Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s manner of incorporating a multitude of small human stories into his work, as well as the way Bruegel constructed intriguing clusters of heads. Bruegel’s influence is certainly visible in the way Willem paints his crowds. Additionally, Willem’s childlike way of painting has been inspired by Flemish artist Kent Iwemyr. Iwemyr’s simple style and subtle humour are parallel to Willem’s own work.
Currently, the artist is working on larger scale pieces. Willem says his style excels in a large format since the works appear abstract from a distance. The artist enjoys the process of creating larger works because he can build up the multitude of small figures whilst in a flow, without thinking too much. In January 2021, the artist began painting a ‘never-ending conga line’. In this work, the artist places several pieces of cardboard next to each other and paints a long, single line of dancing figures. The artist continuously adds more pieces with more dancers, so that each piece makes the conga line longer. The work can be split for purchase so that buyers might each own portions of the dance and share the art together.
Piece 33, The Conga Line, acrylic on cheap cardboard, 2021
In 2020, the artist showed work publicly for the first time in Antwerp. He exhibited four small works on cardboard. In 2021 his art crossed international borders when he worked with Moscow-based Hide Gallery for the first time.
Selected Exhibitions:
Antwerp – vleesfabriek – 2020 (group tentoonstelling)
Hide Gallery – 2021 (opening show).
All images provided by the artist.