Charline Lancel

Charline Lancel is a Brussels based visual artist producing digital Op Art pieces that are currently printed on Aluminium panels using the ChromaLuxe sublimation technique. Under sublimation, the image is not printed on the surface of the panel but instead after intense heating actually becomes part of the image. The use of aluminium suits Charline’s work perfectly as her compositions often have a fluid molten metallic kind of feel to them.

Did you study art? If so, where?

I graduated from the IATA (Technical Arts and Crafts Institute of Namur, in Belgium) school in the Transition Art section. I also hold a degree as a primary school teacher – something that has influenced me to make my artistic work playful and colorful. By and large, I am self-taught, learning new digital technologies (Photoshop, etc.) as they come up.

Why do you like Op Art?

I am intrigued and fascinated by optical illusions. I always loved maths and geometry ; I am very interested in Fibonacci’s numbers and the golden ratio. I particularly love spheres which to me evoke the planets, and give me the feeling that I am connected with the cosmos.

Which Op Artists have particularly inspired you?

I am often told that my visual universe resembles the works of Vasarely, but I must stress the fact that I was not aware of his work when I created my first abstract visuals in 2007. I did, however, write my senior thesis about geometry and the works of Piet Mondrian. I like Mondrian’s approach which strives toward minimalism of abstraction. His researches and his study of vertical and horizontal lines have inspired a part of my own work.

How do you make your art? (computer -> what software? traditional painting -> what materials, how do you plan a piece etc)

I take pictures from everyday life with a simple Cyber-shot Sony camera p200. This makes my basic image matrical and not vectorial. I then process and transform these pictures through Photoshop, working on a MacBook Pro.

What’s the process for making one of your artworks?

I make juxtapositions ; I apply vertical and horizontal symmetry to my images ; I use all the possible resources offered by Photoshop.

Any other art you like and other artists that inspire or have inspired you.

I love the set designs from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the universe of Vadim’s Barbarella as well as the universes of Verner Panton, Eams, Pierre Cardin, Courrèges, and the works of Anish Kapoor, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Curtis Jere, Henk van Putten, Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi, Pierre Rulens, Matthew Divito, Zanis Waldheim, SimonCPage, natacha Caland, Jérôme Jasinski…

What do you like outside of art ?

I love walks in nature, as well as the atmosphere, fashion and music of the late 60s and 70s.

How would you like to progress your artwork in the future ?

I would like to find financial means to create lenticular imprints, in order to give movement to my images.

I would also like to meet other artists who do matrical digital op art. Most abstract and geometric visuals which come under the general banner of ‘Digital Op Art’ are vectorial images.

I am currently seeking a gallery space specialized in ‘Digital Op Art’ which would agree to host my work and exhibit my pictures imprinted on Chromaluxe (and, possibly, on lenticular supports).

You can see much more of Charline’s original and interesting work on her website.