Dr. Hugo Heyrman / Biography

Belgian painter and new media researcher. Born in Antwerpen, where he lives and works. From his earliest work, Dr. Hugo Heyrman developed a transformative vision, a cultural questioning of the nature of perception, memory and images — "Most of my work has to do with contemporary fragility. The works are 'ways of seeing', forms of visual thinking, they make the virtual and mental space of an image real". His art practice includes painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, film and digital media. In his online art project Museums of the Mind he continues his research, theory and experiments on the telematic future of art, the senses and synesthesia.

Originally, Dr. Hugo Heyrman opted for a musical education, but transferred to the visual arts. He graduated from the Royal Academy and became a laureate of the National Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp. In addition, he studied nuclear physics during one year at the State Higher Institute for Nuclear Energy in Mol. He received a doctoral degree, PhD in art sciences, magna cum laude, from the Universidad de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife with a thesis on 'Art & Computers: an exploratory investigation on the digital transformation of art'. In 1995 he coined the terms 'Tele-synaesthesia' and 'Post-ego'. Since 1993 he is a working member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, Brussels. Founder of the Belgian Synesthesia Association (1995). Currently, professor at the Royal Academy for Fine Arts, Antwerp.

During the sixties, Dr. Hugo Heyrman profiled himself as an avant-garde artist with Happenings, film- and video experiments. Published with Panamarenko the magazine 'Happening News' (6 issues). Founder of Artworker Foundation. Publishes the Artworker Star (3 issues). In 1970-73 he made a 'Continental Video & Film Tour' with his Mobile Museum of Modern Media through Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands. For his 'Street-Life' paintings, he was elected laureate of the 'Jeune Peinture Belge' (1974) at the Palais des Beaux-arts, Brussels. In monumental series on 'Water', 'Light', 'Time', 'A Vision is Finer than a View' and 'New Models of Reality', Dr. Hugo Heyrman paints the existentially tension between between ideas and images; an appeal to several senses at once — "I bring the visual and the conceptual, synesthetically closer together". For Dr. Hugo Heyrman ideas are tools; his personal approach to surface, texture and colour contributes to the possibilities of painting, and the adventure of the visual arts.

Online since 1995, Dr. Hugo Heyrman became one of the pioneers in Net.art. He participated in 1988 at the 'First International Symposium on Electronic Art' (FISEA) in Utrecht. Participated in Ars Electronica, 'WWW-sites', Linz, Austria, 1996. In the Fuzzy Dreamz series (a work in progress since 1996) and the Body Language Sequences he transforms his painting experiences into digital media and vice versa. He took part in various Net.art projects, including the online exhibitions, Digital Studies: Being In Cyberspace 'ALT-X-site' (1997) New York and 'Revelation' ISEA 2000, Paris. In 2005, Dr. Hugo Heyrman presented a paper on Art and Synesthesia: in search of the synesthetic experience to the first International Conference on Art and Synesthesia congress at the Universidad de Almería in Spain. His works have been presented in major international exhibitions ranging from Antwerp, Brussels, Basel, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona and Chicago to the Biennale of Venice.



|| Paintings || Net.Art || Synesthesia || Links ||