Billboards Kortrijk 01:
Shirley Villavicencio Pizango
Painting as Far as Your Eyes Can See
16/09/2022 — 11/12/2022
The work of Shirley Villavicencio Pizango (b. 1988, Lima, Peru) is very recognisable. She paints with fast, spontaneous lines and bright, warm colours. Her works seem to balance on the border between drawing and painting. For instance, she often first paints the outline of her subject and then colours it in. There are two recurring themes in Villavicencio Pizango’s work: still lifes and portraits. Villavicencio Pizango’s powerful portraits are painted from live models or from analogue photographs. The artist often portrays herself, but also her friends and family members, with whom she has a personal, sometimes intimate relationship. The portraits are not an exact representation of her models, but rather a personal interpretation, in which she can express her thoughts and feelings.
Villavicencio Pizango has a strong interest in otherness. In this sense, her work is highly inclusive and diverse. She avoids emphasising the personal background of the person portrayed and thus comes to a natural form of diversity. In her portraits, Villavicencio Pizango shows us that the diversity inherent in our world should also have a place in our visual culture, thus helping to build an alternative visual canon. Painting as Far as your Eyes Can See is a self-portrait together with her brother Manolo. Both protagonists look at the viewer expectantly, as if expecting a reaction to their prominent presence in the public space.
All images courtesy of the artist
Installation photography: Dirk Pauwels
Billboards Kortrijk is a long-term art project in public space at Budabrug, Kortrijk. The billboards are selected from Billboard Series’ archive and are presented here within a new narrative. The first five presentations in Kortrijk focus on the artist portrait. Billboards Kortrijk wants to build a sustainable and productive dialogue with the surrounding neighbourhood and urban landscape, and introduce a broad audience to different visual languages and ways of looking at the world.
Billboards Kortrijk is a project of artlead, together with Be-Part Center for Conteporary Art and 019. Billboards Kortrijk is curated by Thomas Caron and takes place within a scenography by architect Olivier Goethals.