Pascal Courcelles

Miniature, 2024

2024

Born in Brussels in 1956, Courcelles studied art at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels and in Tournai, between 1972 and 1979. Since then, he has built a vibrant artistic path, with solo and group exhibitions across Belgium, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, and beyond. But it is his visual language that leaves the deepest impression: profoundly sensorial, composed of layers, material, and color, not as an end, but as a process. His painting is part of a material lineage, where comparisons have been made with Michel Frère or even Eugène Leroy. But unlike Leroy, whose brushstroke carried a nearly tragic pathos, Courcelles paints from a vital impulse, in celebration of life. With each gesture bursts forth the joy of color, the pleasure of chromatic vibration. His admiration for Riopelle is clear: both artists explore the interweaving and layering of color, often in their pure state, explosive, like emotional fireworks. In Courcelles’ work, there is a constant search for beauty that does not impose itself, but is patiently and sincerely constructed. “Quand je ferme les yeux, je peins.”