Nel Maertens

Nel Maertens graduated in 2019 as a master in fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Besides projects in applied art (textile and costume design), Maertens focuses on an autonomous fine art practice. She is a multidisciplinary artist and likes to engage in cross-sectoral collaborations.

She explores color, composition, material, writing and energy in her drawing and painting practice. Nels work results from an intense process in which the boundaries between the process of creation, conceptualization and realization often blur.

She often works “en-plein-air”, yet the representation of the landscape is primarily a way of conceiving all kinds of other narratives. The young multidisciplinary artist mainly aims to create an illusion, to evoke other meanings. At first view, her work appears to be very diverse. Yet the speed with which Nel draws and put an image on paper is characteristic. She often works with oil stick, oil pastel and soft pastel on paper or cardboard: materials that are characterized by their manageability, directness and typically quick markings that favor the “gesture”.