FLIEG Is a Belgian artist based in Brussels. With the adoption of this pseudonym, FLIEG deliberately mystifies their identity, both within the art scene and in their self-portraits, drawing on the concept of La Mort de l’auteur (Roland Barthes). In doing so, they shift interpretative authority toward the viewer, positioning them at the centre of meaning-making.

Their work seeks to explore the nature of existence, melding pictorial pleasure with post-modern literary strategies and a sustained fascination with natural history. Functioning as a kind of pictorial encyclopaedia, their paintings unfold through dissociated frame narratives, layered, recursive, and often ambiguous. References ranging from post-modern literature to natural history museums permeate these visual constellations, where images echo, repeat, and refract across compositions.

To deconstruct traditional narratives and visual conventions, FLIEG’s paintings become open-ended invitations to contemplation. They question established norms while embracing the enigmatic allure of existence, cultivating a space where ambiguity, mystification, and non-being coexist.

At the heart of their practice lies a deep reverence for the interconnectedness of all living beings. Their imagination transcends time and space, intertwining past, present, and future into a continuous, unstable present. The human body, at once vulnerable and resilient, emerges as a recurring locus through which they probe the essence of existence. Flesh, in its ephemeral condition, becomes a fundamental material and metaphor, a surface upon which the intricate, often unsettling narratives of life are inscribed.