Born in Eupen in 1965, Romain Van Wissen lives and works in Membach, a small village at the foot of the Hertogenwald.

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“As far back as I can remember, I have always drawn. My circle of friends was not really focused on art. My grandmother, however, was attentive and supportive, encouraging me to pursue drawing.

In fact, I remember a painting in her living room, a landscape, that I admired a lot, a house by a lake. I remember it very precisely, it reminded me of far away places. She later told me that she had bought it at the weekly market and that they were selling it, in the same kind of way, at every turn. Mass-produced, no doubt,… first disillusionment.

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When I was 12 or 13 years old I took part in an oil painting workshop during an afternoon at the scouts. This initiation was like a revelation, a trigger, which aroused my curiosity and made me want to paint.

This desire however remained on the back burner for a very long time,…very slowly it became an intention, but still no action,…second disillusion.

I was 21 years old when I finally decided to enrol in painting, at the Académie des Beaux Arts de Verviers in evening classes. This was after my studies as an occupational therapist and during my civil service.

Five years in painting, plus one for the Verviers prize, followed by five years in engraving.

Creating an image is an adventure!
Reproducing, inventing, imagining, experimenting etc…Mastering or not, being guided or not, bright colours or not… many questions are in the balance and remain without precise answers. Third disillusionment?

Not at all, on the contrary, it is very good so!

Certainties do not mix well with creativity. I prefer doubt, I need it to progress, but I had to tame it. It usually arrives by surprise and slyly advises me to erase everything. It’s time to let go of everything, to observe and reflect. Is this really bad or just unusual?

Progressively, over the years of pictorial work, the desire to merge different universes, opposed by definition, emerged as an approach. Provoking the meeting between figuration and abstraction or more precisely, between identifiable and non-identifiable became my challenge.

The pictorial space is for me, a playground. It obeys my own logic, which is not always in line with reality. Everything becomes possible if we make it plausible, even if this little uncertainty, which titillates the mind, persists.

The combinations of images imported from all directions, produce a kind of magic by interacting with each other. Their apparent opposites boost the senses and provoke multiple interpretations.

Little by little, one sinks into the universe of the canvas by constantly going through other doors.

The perplexities gradually fade to the benefit of illusions.