Bent Van Looy

Bent Van Looy (°1976, Belgium)
 Bent Van Looy has been fighting it out with two muses for as long as he can remember. As a musician who went to art school (or is it a painter who deeply enjoyed touring), he has been trying to find a way to do both well. Sometimes that means not at all, if only to prevent half-arsed work. After a fifteen year hiatus, a studio was found and painting has yet again been very much on his mind. For a little over a year, Bent’s been working hard on modestly sized figurative oil paintings of abandoned zoo enclosures, shiny happy clown’s heads who may actually be cookie jars and more such apparently jolly scenes. Under the surface, however, something strangely uncomfortable lurks.