Plates II is a new series of huge porcelain plate paintings by Jan De Vliegher. United in their ritualistic and repetitive compositions the series of circular abstractions reveal De Vliegher’s fascination with the painting experience.

Jan De Vliegher has a fascination with the 18th century. Previously he painted rococo interiors from Venetian palaces, the Hofburg in Vienna and the palace of Versailles, and everything that belongs in a palace: crystal glasses and decanters, crockery and plates in porcelain, marble busts, chandeliers, silverware, ...

From the countless photographic recordings he chooses a limited number of images that are carefully crafted with the computer. Composition, form, color and perspective are manipulated and modified in preparation of the painting. In his paintings, De Vliegher is looking for the magic moment where figuration ends and abstraction begins, that instant when the realistic illusion ends and the subject changes into paint.

In his paintings the reflecting light and shadows come loose from the objects and form abstract compositions that refer to abstract expressionism. What stands out again and again in his work is the joy of painting.