Kim Corbisier
1985, Anderlecht (Belgium) — 2012, Budapest
Kim Corbisier, who tragically died at the age of 27, had a distinguished career ahead of her. Even during her university years, she received prestigious awards and grants, including the Amadeus Artists' Scholarship, the Erasmus Scholarship, the Strabag Artists' Prize, and her work was exhibited in group shows in cities such as Moscow, Kyiv, and Marseilles.
Her paintings are characterized by the interplay of drawn and painted surfaces, emphasising both emptiness and presence. During her travels, she extensively photographed her surroundings – these photographs later served as a foundation for creating her art, reinterpreting the motifs, faces, streets, and spaces into her own unique style, turning them into a distinctive visual narrative.
Her images depict everyday scenes of urban life: people returning home from shopping, beggars, shopping trolleys towed by the homeless, figures standing at ATMs, street sweepers with handcarts, disabled people in wheelchairs. While faces – bored, withdrawn, hostile, or even with expressions of wonder – often take center stage, facelessness is also a recurring element. Her figures frequently look beyond the picture plane, creating a complex and strangely tense dynamic between the artist, the observed, and the viewer: the observed becomes the observer, gazing not only at the artist but also at the viewer who is a witness to this virtual interaction.
Corbisier's photorealistic painting style contrasts sharply with hurried, almost blurred blots. The strange dynamic between the whole and the detached details forces the viewer to adopt a kind of 'double gaze' – constantly oscillating between focusing on the details and perceiving the painting as a whole.
