Billboard Series is a long-term art project in public spaces. Every three months, a different artist will show a work. Through changing presentations, Billboard Series aims to build a sustainable and productive dialogue with the surrounding neighbourhood and the urban landscape. The first series of works in Kortrijk focuses on the artist's portrait.

Billboard Series started at Dok Noord in Ghent and is a project of artlead.net and 019, developed with the support of the Flemish Community and the City of Ghent. Billboard Series Kortrijk is a collaboration between artlead.net, 019 and Be-Part, Platform for contemporary art and was curated by Thomas Caron, within a scenography by architect Olivier Goethals.

SHIRLEY VILLAVICENCIO PIZANGO
Painting as Far as your Eyes Can See, 2021

Shirley Villavicencio Pizango's (b. 1988, Lima, Peru) work is very recognisable. She paints with fast, spontaneous lines and bright, warm colours. Her works seem to balance on the border between drawing and painting. For instance, she often first paints the outline of her subject and then colours it in.

There are two recurring themes in Villavicencio Pizango's work: still lifes and portraits. Villavicencio Pizango's powerful portraits are painted from live models or from analogue photographs. The artist often portrays herself, but also her friends and family members, with whom she has a personal, sometimes intimate relationship. The portraits are not an exact representation of her models, but rather a personal interpretation, in which she can express her thoughts and feelings.

Villavicencio Pizango has a strong interest in otherness. In this sense, her work can be called very inclusive and diverse. She avoids emphasising the personal background of the person being portrayed, thus arriving at a natural form of diversity. In her portraits, Villavicencio Pizango shows us that the diversity inherent in our world should also be given a place in our visual culture, thus helping to build an alternative visual canon.

Painting as Far as your Eyes Can See is a self-portrait together with her brother Manolo. Both protagonists look at the viewer expectantly, as if expecting a reaction to their prominent presence in the public space.

Shirley Villavicencio Pizango studied at KASK and HISK - both in Ghent, and showed her work internationally at various venues in Belgium, the United States and Peru. Shirley Villavicencio Pizango is represented by Steve Turner Gallery in Los Angeles and Ginsberg Galeria in Lima. Courtesy of Galerie Geukens & De Vil.