Frederik Lizen paints ‘en plein public’ wooden fences used to shield yards here and there in the city. Besides his urban interventions, Frederik Lizen also seeks out green environments to create landscapes there, ‘en plein air’, with gouache and pastel chalk, often on pieces of wallpaper. The speed at which he has to work on fences has instilled in him an ability to ‘scan’ the environment and to very directly, spontaneously precipitate those impressions into complex yet very synthetic landscape images.
This creates a fascinating interaction between the ‘fence paintings’ in Ostend city centre (some parts of fences have been taken out of the streetscape and placed in the gallery's ‘white cube’) and the landscapes on display in the gallery. This triggers a dynamic between outside and inside, between spontaneous, large-scale, public works and intimate, ephemeral creations.
In both art forms, Frederik Lizen tries to integrate the transience of a moment and the essence of an experience into his work, but their respective contexts of origin and impact are quite different. Street paintings have a strong public, social dimension, actively interacting with a city's residents and visitors. They can provide social commentary, reflect local history or (even during the creation process) reinforce a sense of community. A crucial aspect is that they are subject to, or make use of, impermanence and change. The drawings attempt to depict this ephemerality and changeability. The focus here is on the atmosphere in green surroundings. They offer a more intimate experience, both for the artist during the creation process and for the viewer.

Artists: Frederik Lizen