There are artists whose work seems to emerge from another realm — both deeply personal and universal. Sophie Gerin, a French artist based in Belgium, embodies this quest for meaning and beauty through an artistic practice rooted in intuition, mythology, and the mysteries of the human soul.
After an initial career in finance, she made a decisive shift in 2006: she began painting with oil and palette knife, inspired by the light and landscapes of southern France, where she now partly lives. This initial artistic impulse has gradually been enriched with new techniques, including printmaking, which she studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Versailles (2011–2012). Since then, she has continued to explore and combine various practices in a constant search to express the invisible, the ineffable — what escapes logical language.
Sophie Gerin’s creative process reflects her inner world: meditative, organic, unpredictable. She first engraves faces or landscapes onto copper plates, which she assembles like fragments of a visual narrative. The inking, done by hand, becomes a ritual — an intuitive dance between control and surrender. Through the press, the damp paper receives this alchemy, revealing a unique work each time, where etched lines meet luminous abstractions, and faces emerge from inner landscapes.
Both her engravings and her paintings carry a strong spiritual dimension: avatar-like faces, sacred landscapes, mantras, hidden symbols... Her art explores the depths of being, echoes of ancient civilizations, forgotten stories, and that timeless wisdom humanity still carries within. Influences such as Leonardo da Vinci, Zao Wou-Ki, Turner, and Alechinsky can be felt, though always filtered through a deeply personal lens shaped by contemplation and inner resonance.
Among her most striking works, two series stand out. “Avatar” draws from the rich visual and symbolic universe of the cult film, as well as Hindu mythology: bluish faces echoing the god Vishnu, dense green jungles, and the occasional golden glimmer of an engraved mantra. It’s an invitation to reconnect with the essential, with that primal life force. “Better Left a Mystery 1”, more contemplative, plays with silence and suggested forms, evoking a wise, luminous figure — almost Christlike — in a semi-abstract world. Between mystery and gentleness, these works open a space for meditation.
A lyrical abstractionist, Sophie Gerin embraces a poetic freedom akin to surrealism — not so much in imagery as in approach: instinctive, intuitive, freed from conventions. For her, art is a bridge to other dimensions, a language charged with symbols and emotions. A way to expand our perception of reality.
Aware of the challenges of today’s art world, she insists on the importance of staying true to what genuinely moves us, far from market-driven trends. In a world increasingly dominated by digital technology and artificial intelligence, she reaffirms the value of artistic expression as a tool for transmission and transformation: “Creating nourishes me, connects me to something greater than myself.”
Today, Sophie Gerin continues her artistic journey by combining printmaking, oil painting, and mixed media. Her current focus lies in layering, collage, and the visual suggestion of multiple planes — a way to give form to the coexistence of the visible and the invisible that she has been exploring since the very beginning.
Echoing Kandinsky — whose quote she loves to cite, “Art is not a creation without purpose… it is a force whose aim is to develop and elevate the human soul” — Sophie Gerin’s work reveals itself as an art of resonance: an art that connects, questions, soothes, and above all, opens the doors to an inner world we may have forgotten to see.
