Fabienne Withofs

Exhibition Humour and freedom, decadence and phantasy - September 2018

Yves Malfliet - Fabienne Withofs

Fabienne Withofs was trained as ceramist in Liège (Ecole Supérieure des Arts St-Luc) and became professor in 1998 at the Academy in Huy (Belgium). She exhibited in Japan, China, France, (Bretagne and Vallauris), Holland (Amsterdam), Spain (Saragossa), Germany (Koblenz and the famous Keramik Museum in Westerwald).
Fabienne’s work is difficult to catch. It is clearly ceramics, mostly porcelain, and it could not been done in another material. Her sculptures are funny, look cheerful, but do have a serious bottom line. There is color, and form. Form that suggests in one sculpture a stylized part of a body, in another a complete human figure, but distorted. There are vessels, small plates and bigger containers referring to functional ceramics from China and Japan, where she resided for some years. The containers are functional but do not look like it. One can drink from her cups but prefers not to do so. The surface of both sculptures and vessels are graphically decorated in a very joyful way. However concept is more important than function. Antropomorphic figurines and vessels are archetypical forms coming from prehistory but Fabienne uses them to mock decadence and power. She offers us a surprise ending series of ceramic art. Quite unusual and very tempting.