Philippe Smeyers

Philippe Smeyers (b. 1952), also known under artistic aliases Phil LeGris and PhiGura, is a Belgian audiovisual artist, painter, experimental music composer, free improviser, DIY-instruments builder, and educator from Brussels. In 1974, he graduated from the Visual Arts department of Hogeschool Sint-Lukas, Brussels. Since '79, Philippe Smeyers is a Tervuren resident, where his recording/painting studios are.

In the late seventies, Philippe Smeyers co-founded INaudible collective and non-profit organization, promoting and advancing free improvisational music. Smeyers participated in INaudible's early sessions at Bozar, Brussels, playing on double bass, cello, piano, guitar, Theremin, and handmade 'crackle boxes' (similar to Michel Waisvisz's instruments). He also made a 3-color silkscreen for the ensemble's debut '81 Musique Improvisée • Improvised Music LP (Jacques DeDeken, who played percussion on these sessions, created the artwork).

As a painter and visual artist, Philippe Smeyers primarily works in abstract expressionism, focusing on painting's visual problems rather than figurative aspects. His method typically involves an "action painting" (rapid instigation of primary colors) followed by multiple interventions with medium: overpainting, scrapping acrylic and oil paints, adding new layers. Another distinct self-invented genre, "phibrations," shows color 'identities,' with a series of paintings in homogenous tones (resembling some Mark Rothko's concepts and approaches). Besides different 'painter's' techniques, Smeyers uses various media and formats in his art: animated film, digital video/graphic image processing, experimental electronica productions, etc. He teaches as a professor of Multimedia and Computer Animation. Less