Always never the same Painting

A passionate plea for the use of colour whose subject is painting.! And Michiels paints several overlapping abstract levels as almost rigorous surfaces in an unusual purity. Michiels often repeats structures in one painting after another, creating correlations between different works and increasing the complexity of his intrinsic formal cross-references. Overpainting is Michiels' way of staging a dialectical relationship between what his paintings reveal and what they hide. A pictorial reality that is no longer visible to the viewer not only arouses curiosity, but also uncertainty, because visual information is withheld. Michiels sees his working process as an adventure. "My paintings do not come about quickly. They are the result of a well-considered approach. I use a number of techniques from abstraction and minimalism to create something that feels open. Not to camouflage the thought process. I am therefore interested in the history and chronology of each painting." And to return to his unfiltered use of colour, some find it pedantic and know-it-all. He himself talks about inner monologues and changes in perspective in colour. "I've always been attracted to the concept of questions and mystery. If you're not experimenting, why are you painting?" he concludes. Fred Michiels has been represented by the Antwerp gallery Eva Steynen since 2011 and by The Office of Useless Art since 2017, which publishes his poetry collections and pamphlets. His large-format transparent book is in the collection of the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, among others. The Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library in Antwerp has the entire collection of Fred Michiels' publications. The magazine "Temporarily Useful Zones" has dedicated a number of poster zines to the work of Fred Michiels. The latest issue is a collaboration between Michiels and the obscure French poet Heptanes Fraxion (Toulouse). There is also a collaboration on the agenda with the writer Anne Letoré (Lille).