©Alies Torfs
Kaat Lens (BE, 2000°) studied Fine Arts - Painting at LUCA School of Arts Ghent, she lives and works in Brussels.
“The film quit rolling the scene got stuck so we wait. We don’t know what will happen next neither do we know what happened previously, we just know what we see now. Like a tale spun over time it expands the longer it exists, storylines become more detailed, the pea under her bed turns out to be an apple all along, the girl's tears aren’t born of heartbreak but because her wool sweater has shrunk in the wash. We know what we see, we don’t know what happened, we become curious and let our imagination play the scene.”
She paints what she wants to see and occasionally what she’d like to own.
The artist’s favorite way to paint a person is by dressing them. By painting the clothes, she experiences a similar feeling as if the clothes are already hanging in her closet.
It’s a great way to avoid buying the Prada boots by painting them instead.
In 2024 Kaat temporarily helped out at the clothing store ‘Stijl’ in Brussels. Here, her love for fashion was reaffirmed, making the artist more attentive to what’s happening in fashion, which designers influence her work, and how important painting fashion remains to her.
The scenes in her works are imagined and influenced by people-watching, window shopping, theatre shows and by simply observing her daily surroundings. In response she will start a new painting whenever the imagination and influence is on a high. Trusting the coincidences that happen during the painting process, the artist finds solutions in her accidents and creates a scene in paint. Once finished, the scene is meant to be viewed by the audience as though they’re looking through a window or watching a theatre show. In the painting, something is happening that can be perceived, depending on who you are.On painting
“Le Moment Suprême”
When being in the process of painting, it is only afterwards, when a brief moment passes through the artist’s mind, that the image finally feels complete. Those few seconds when the work will no longer be touched by paint feels like gold, a moment the artist calls ‘Le Moment Supreme.’ This occurs when the artist can finally see the entirety of her work for the first time. Occasionally, that timeline of a frenzy can shift depending on how long the painting took and when the big change happened. Whenever the artist spends longer than usual on a painting, the ‘Le Moment Supreme’ might occur in the middle of the process, leaving the ending to feel unfinished. This is why the artist tries not to work on a painting for more than three weeks-though there are exceptions. “Sometimes the painting you did in a week is simply better than the one you worked on for a month.”
Most of the time ‘Le Moment Supreme’ is a great magic potion for the title of a painting. As Sontag described the following: “By being able to describe meaning to it when being awake and not dreaming, when you are awake and find yourself highly selective. That is the time meaning can be given.”
Exhibitions
2024. Vruchtbare Grond – Het Bos, Antwerpen, BE.
2024. Residency - Het Bos, Antwerpen, BE.
2023. Buy local #3 - Kunsthal Gent, BE.
2023. The Sequel Graduation Show - LUCA School of Arts Gent, BE.
2023. PANIEK IN DE DISKUS - Diskus, Aalst, BE.
2023. FFFFOOOOUUUURRRR - Yügen, Gent, BE.
2022. Graduation Show Bachelor Expo, LUCA School of Arts Gent, BE.
2022. About the Narrative in Painting - Galerie Jakob van Caeneghemstraat 16, Gent, BE.
2021. Door het doek het schilderij een zoektocht naar de meester - Roger Raveel Museum, Mechelen-aan-de-Leie, BE.