Art Story

Porcelain was once the ultimate status symbol: a precious object reflecting the taste, wealth, and worldly outlook of its owners. Today, it carries above all a memory -of grandeur, refinement, and a vanished form of material culture. In that visual and cultural legacy, Jan De Vliegher finds a lasting source of inspiration. In the "Plates" series, he transforms porcelain dishes into abstracted visions: not faithful depictions of reality, but expressive interpretations -freer, richer, more intense. Each plate becomes a visual manifesto: a circular explosion of colour and movement set against a neutral background. The series reflects on the human tendency to surround oneself with beauty and opulence, as the European aristocracy once did. What was once a utilitarian object is, under De Vliegher's brush, lifted beyond its function -elevated to idea, to desire. That "Plates" ranks among the artist's personal favourites underscores the significance he attaches to this body of work. Each piece turns the plate into an open field of colour, gesture, and paint -a celebration of painting itself.