At first glance, Ritsart Gobyn’s paintings seem to be a random collection of traces of a creation process. Paint splatters and smudges cover unprimed pieces of linen, onto which various collage elements such as bits of tape, colorful scraps of paper, or fragments of existing paintings or drawings are affixed.
They suggest an unfinished quality that confronts the viewer with the creation process a painting undergoes before it reveals itself. However, perception shifts when it turns out that the tape and paper snippets are painted trompe l’oeils. Ritsart Gobyn uses trompe l’oeil as a visual strategy to make the viewer aware of the creation process, through the illusion of a result. Thus, trompe l’oeil becomes not just an optical trick or effect, but a spotlight on the artistic process itself, questioning the ‘status’ of the painting as both image and object.
Ritsart Gobyn took part in the group exhibition (expo)nentieel at DeNode (2024–2025, curator Hilde Van Canneyt).