Looking at Kristof Santy’s latest paintings on the internet, I was fascinated to realize that there was not one work that did not catch my eye. I was staring into every painting for as long as I could, and admiring every detail, until his beautifully illustrated compositions left me really craving for a bite! As a consequence, being not the best cook that I know of, I have decided to write a piece about him while eating my freshly cooked ‘pasta al pomodoro’.

Based in Roeselare, Kristof Santy is a Belgian painter, who is inspired by folklore and by what was there before him. Discovering freedom in figurative paintings of ordinary objects and everyday life, Santy creates jazzy canvases with vibrant visuals that hit the viewers in their eyes.

As a kid, Santy remembers being obsessed with painting and reflecting his fantasy worlds on paper in the form of cartoons. When he was 18, he started working in a factory, but the urge to paint never left him. After his shifts, he started painting by himself, trying to find his language through self-portraits or the technical environments that he was in.

His search led him to books and museums until he could learn about painters like Jean Brusselmans and Philip Guston, whose figurative and expressionist artworks helped shape Santy’s painting style.

“Painting these common elements is a kind of way to make them iconic.”

The European pop art of the 70s is the liberation that Santy follows in his graphic representations of common objects. He claims that his chosen subjects are not perceived as interesting generally until they are painted and given a whole new aspect. His latest obsession with food and food-related topics brought a collection of new artworks that were exhibited at his solo show “La Grande Bouffe” in the summer of 2022.

The artist, describing himself as a film freak, was highly inspired by the Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s drama “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussel”, that depicts the routine life of a housewife. Recalling the same schedule of the protagonist both as depressing and comforting, Santy has decided to portray the mundane objects that we use routinely to pay his respect to these neglected things. His painting “Beenhourwerif” houses a woman figure similar to the movie’s main character Jeanne.

Let me leave you alone with the playfully coloured paintings of Kristof Santy along with a video to get to know him a bit more. Check out his website to learn more about his upcoming exhibitions and follow his Instagram @kristofsanty to be up-to-date on his new works. We are sure that, just like us, you will hardly stop yourself from scrolling through his posts. Do not forget to write what you think of Santy’s paintings in our comment section below!

About Kristof Santy

Kristof Santy was born in 1987 in Belgium. While he grows on his collection of folk art books, his way of painting is shaped by his influences, especially the Belgian painter Jean Brusselmans. Aside from Brusselmans, Santy is influenced by the Canadian-American painter and muralist Philip Guston, the Italian painter and stage designer Domenico Gnoli, and the German painter and graphic artist Konrad Klapheck.

The artist’s debut was a group exhibition titled “Een Groep” at Galerie De Ziener in Brussels in 2020. His first solo show was titled “Nijverheid”, presented at Thomas Serruys Gallery in Bruges in 2021. Aside from cities in Belgium, his artworks were exhibited in Marbella (Spain), in Vienna (Austria), and in London (UK).

Kristof Santy is represented by Unit London and Christine König Galerie.