Born in 1965 in Bruges (Belgium), Sophie Kuijken lives and works in Willebringen, near Leuven (Belgium).
Graduated in1988 from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (K.A.S.K), Belgium, Sophie Kuijken’s work is today a unique contribution to the art of portraiture. Through her technical mastery, the artist overlays several strata of different temporalities, from the great, unchanging history of art, to the common, random resources of the digital age. Portraits built from photographic fragments gleaned from the Internet mark an original counterpoint to the history of portraiture, intrinsically linked to the live model. This multiplication of sources, this original dispersion of the subject, creates a diffuse mystery, that of a half-familiar, half-chemical figure, flirting with the bizarre. The portraits become allegories of the mystery of existence, and stand before their fellow human beings who look at them - or at themselves in the mirror.
Since 2011, Sophie Kuijken has enjoyed major solo exhibitions such as Picture this at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle (Belgium, 2011), Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Brussels (Belgium, 2014 and 2016) and Paris (France, 2017), Centre Culturel de Maasmechelen (Belgium, 2015), as well as a solo show at Art Brussels (Belgium, 2015) and Art on Paper in Brussels (Belgium, Belgium). Sophie Kuijken will benefit from a solo exhibition at the Centre d'art contemporain la Matmut - Daniel Havis in automn 2025.
Sophie Kuijken has also taken part in significant group shows with XXH at the Museum Dr Guislain in Ghent (Belgium, 2013), Vestige at the Fondation Francès in Senlis (France, 2014), at the Maison Belge in Cologne (Germany, 2014), Dries van Noten - Inspirations at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (France, 2014) and at MoMu, the Fashion Museum in Antwerp (Belgium, 2015), Portrait bourgeois at the Musée d’Ixelles in Brussels (Belgium, 2016), Ecce Homo at the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp (Belgium, 2017), Who are you? at the Maison des Arts in Brussels (Belgium, 2019), Le retour de l’Agneau at Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent alongside the famous altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers (Belgium, 2020), I feel really awake at the Maison du Peuple in Saint-Gilles (Belgium, 2020) and Paroles de cheval at the Haras national du Pin in Le Pin-au-Haras (France, 2021).