• Elise Willems (°1993, Aalst, Belgium), lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium.

    Elise Willems earned her degree in Architecture from the University of LUCA school of arts before studying a degree Fine Arts at Sint-Lucas Antwerp. In addition to her individual practice, Willems is a member of the artist collective ZIJspoor, which organizes artist-run exhibitions in Antwerp.

    Elise Willems' work explores the interplay between the physical and the digital within a phygital practice. Drawing on her background in architecture and visual arts, she approaches art as a spatial and material construction in which digital processes and analog techniques complement and interrogate each other. 

    Digital images and virtual 3D drawings often form the starting point of her work. These immaterial objects are deconstructed and translated into paintings, shifting scale, function, and meaning. What begins as a digital object can transform into a landscape, an architectural fragment of an autonomous form. This creates a visual language that breaks free from recognizable reality and opens up an alternative, imaginary world.

    In her work, organic substitutes, such as flowers and natural structures, merge with abstract and architectural forms. Digital objects, which originally lacked taste, acquire texture, weight, and physical presence through painting and ceramics. The tension between digital perfection and manual imperfection remains visible.

    A key element of Willems' practice is the integration of ceramic sculpture into paintings.
    By adding ceramic elements, the surface is opened up, creating a dialogue between two- and three-dimensionality. Motifs extend beyond the canvas and occupy space, merging painting and sculpture.

    The work allows the viewer to dream away in a colorful, layered world, but simultaneously invites them to reflect on a rapidly changing reality in which the digital is increasingly pervasive. This creates space for reflection on what is tangible, substantial, and factual, and what, in fact, eludes fixed forms and surprises.

  • CV

    2022 Master Fine art, Sint-Lucas, Antwerp, Belgium

    2016 Master Architecture, LUCA School of arts – Ghent, Belgium

    EXPOS

    2026 Stand van zaken | ZIJspoor, Antwerp Art Weekend, Antwerp, Belgium

    2026 The wunderwall enlarged | Galerie Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerpen, Belgium

    2025 10e nationale prijs schilderkunst Louise Dehem | CC Het Perron, Ieper, Belgium

    2025 InTouch | MuHKA, Antwerp, Belgium

    2025 Shifting Scales | ZIJspoor, Antwerp Art Weekend, Antwerp, Belgium

    2024 NU | Atelier In Het Groen, Antwerp, Belgium

    2024 Botanique | Het Perron, Ieper, Belgium

    2024 Gaverprijs | Be-Part, Waregem, Belgium

    2023 Between solid and liquid | ArtTelex, Antwerp, Belgium

    2023 Onboards Biennale | Antwerp, Belgium

    2023 May Flowers | Cateye, Atlanta, US

    2023 Kunstoevers | Walstroom, Aalst, Belgium

    2023 Kunst in huis collection, Belgium

    2022 l’Atelier by Glennfidich | The Wunderwall, Antwerp, Belgium

    2022 To Be Antwerp | Sint-Joris church, Antwerp, Belgium

    2022 Matter // Matters, graduation show | Sint-Lucas, Antwerp, Belgium

    2021 PRACTICE PRACTISE, premaster expo | Sint-Lucas, Antwerp, Belgium

    2021 pART, pop-up art sale | Antwerp, Belgium

    2018 Graduation show DKO | KASKA Antwerp, Belgium

    2016 “De wereld onder één dak”, graduation show | LUCA, Ghent, Belgium