Pierre ALECHINSKY

Born in Brussels, Belgium. After graduating high school, he began taking courses on book binding at an art school in the city. Here, he learned printing, which would open his road towards becoming an artist. Alechinsky was active in the international avant-garde group CoBrA (established from 1948-1951). Afterwards, he moved to Paris. Alechinsky developed a relationship with the avant-garde calligrapher from Kyoto, Shiryu MORI, leading to him visiting Japan in 1955. He created a short film title “The Script of Japan”. He was inspired by calligraphy in his own work to use free brush strokes and use the quickly drying nature of acrylic to create bold expressions of his feelings

. He developed his own style of drawing which was uplifting and lively, a complex and organic style full of vibrant colors. In 1960 and 1972 he exhibited at the Venice Biennale as a representative of Belgium. From 2016-2017 he held his first large scale retrospective in Japan in Tokyo and Osaka as part of a tribute to 150 years of diplomatic relations between Japan and Belgium.