Annelies Van Damme

°1998, Brussels, Belgium.
Lives and works In Ghent, Belgium.

Annelies Van Damme is a contemporary artist whose work explores themes of power, gender and sexuality, and the complexities of war and crime. Through bold painting and provocative imagery, she confronts societal norms and personal experiences, often teleporting her own naked body into found footage of pornographic websites or other violent resources. She aims to investigate a very fake sexualised world and a very real violent one, ultimately seeking to show how the two are more often than not one and the same. Annelies shamelessly rips open wounds her audience prefers to ignore. In doing so she manages to evoke raw emotions and provoke thought, inviting viewers to reflect on their own perception of gendered power-dynamics and their own complicity in this violence. Her paintings are monumental and bright, dripping in paint and sometimes torn and damaged with nails. When standing in front of one of Annelies’ paintings it is hard to look away. Forcing you to be part of the violent dynamic that is in front of you and make a choice: to keep watching or to walk away.