Erik Heyninck

Biography

Erik Heyninck is born in Antwerp on the 7th of March 1952. He began his artistic life as a guitarist in his own band for which he was also the main composer and lyrics writer. When this road came to an end, he went to work in Catalunya, Spain, and, inspired by the rocky shore, it was there that he decided to take up painting. Since then the visual arts have been his main preoccupation, although the music is never far away. As an artist, he is self-taught.

He enrolled in the evening classes at the Royal Academy of Arts in Antwerp. The years he spent in the drawing course didn’t teach him much, but the etching classes brought him in 1984 to Paris, where he learned the craft and worked as a professional printer of etchings and engravings in the studio of René Tazé.

He lives and works in Antwerp. You could bring his art under the Flemish Contemporary; Visionary and Fantastic art category.

Artist Statement

As an artist, I have no one to convince nor please, nothing to prove or express, no big theories to share. I create my works because it pleases me to do so. It is a free choice that is not influenced by society’s big desires for fame and fortune.

What is visible is only part of the works. Therefore it is not sufficient to watch them, not even to observe every detail in them.
To really get into contact with them, they need to be experienced in a mental state of inner stillness, openness, and not-understanding.

I have no special talent to explain my works in a better or deeper way than anybody else would be able to. All possible interpretation is limited to the story about life any observator, and this includes me, tells themselves. In fact: although I created these works myself, they defy any explanation and they often baffle me. They go beyond emotion, beyond thinking, beyond instinct, beyond deep fears and beyond high hopes, beyond understanding, and beyond dreams. They can neither be reduced nor explained away by any belief system, including spirituality, religion, logic, objectivity, and common sense.

Being creative helps me not to forget that I’m alive and living this life.