Diederik Boyen
°1968 | Oostend
Diederik Boyen (b. 1968) - Visual Artist
Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, Department of Sculpture
While Diederik Boyen's spatial work (objects, installations, etc.) leaned towards the abstraction of reality, as a painter he initially focused on figurative work with a strong emphasis on content.
Themes such as identity, particularly the removal of it, led to a series of meticulously constructed oil paintings. The dark atmosphere, somberness, and unsettling expressions often leave viewers with an intriguing yet uncomfortable feeling.
In recent years, however, Boyen has increasingly returned to the abstraction of his subjects; reality undergoes an analysis, is dissected, and what remains dissolves, flows apart, or merges to take on new, peculiar forms.
Utilizing his talent as a fine painter, he knows how to make the distinction between mere shapes and colors and a reasoned, lyrical, experimental, and compositionally strong whole.