Untitled

"I need painting because it's something physical. It's like someone who goes running every day, after a while it starts to feel like a necessity, it becomes automatic." Julien Meert, 2023.

This self-portrait by Julien Meert belongs to an ongoing series he started in 2014. The 20 or so portraits consist of close-ups of the artist, based on selfies he made. Treading the line between seduction and repulsion, his portrait accumulates and unfolds from canvas to canvas, always on the same large vertical format.

Through repetition, the specific character of each face gradually fades into the background, turning into a motif. The empty, dilated eyes are expressionless and hypnotic, while the mouth always remains closed. The face is blown up so that it occupies the entire surface of the canvas. It is at once very present, even intimidating, yet also floating, as if disembodied.

Julien Meert did not initially intend to make this self-portrait. He simply took a selfie to help him paint a correctly proportioned face. In this throwaway image, however, he caught a glimpse of his state of mind, a pictorial expression of his inner turmoil. He decided to develop this kernel into a series of portraits, setting himself a new formal challenge each time. This exercise enables him to distance himself from his own image.