Tom Colaux, a Belgian artist at the intersection of painting, photography, and audiovisual creation founded the agency CLXpictures and, for over ten years, Colaux has been developing a raw, instinctive, and visceral artistic language.
After a deep personal rupture, painting became his outlet. He paints like one writes in the dark — with no plan, no sketch, no filter. The faces emerge like ghosts he wasn’t expecting — but who already knew everything about him.
His canvases are filled with colorful faces, sometimes grotesque, often unsettling, appearing in a controlled chaos. They reflect the tension between the intimate and the social, between appearances and the silent scream within.
ArtDependence (AD): How does your work reflect your view of the world right now?
Tom Colaux (TC): We are living in a time of contradiction: hyper-connection yet deep loneliness, constant noise yet a hunger for silence. My paintings are a mirror of this state. They don’t offer answers, but they expose the fracture lines, the raw emotions, the masks and the truths we carry.
AD: What role do you think art plays in connecting people today?
TC: Art is one of the last universal languages. It bypasses the intellect and goes straight to the body and the emotions. In exhibitions, I see strangers suddenly connected through the same painting — not by words, but by a silent recognition of something inside themselves. This is where art becomes essential today: it restores a form of intimacy in a world that often feels fragmented.
AD: What message or feeling do you hope viewers take away from your art?
TC: I don’t want to deliver a single message. I want each person to feel confronted, moved, disturbed, or liberated. If someone leaves with a stronger connection to themselves — to their fears, their wounds, or their joy — then my work has done its job.
AD: Can you tell us the story behind the artwork you chose to share?
TC: I decided to highlight Voyage au bout de l’esprit, one of my paintings inspired by Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit. It’s a canvas filled with faces and fragments of humanity, both grotesque and fragile. The work was created during a period of deep introspection, after moments of rupture in my life. It carries the chaos, but also the survival instinct that keeps us alive.
ArtDependence: What inspired you to take part in the Art to Collect project?
Tom Colaux: I wanted to be part of a platform that makes art accessible while still highlighting authentic voices. My work is deeply instinctive, born out of personal struggles and a search for freedom. To share it through Art to Collect felt natural, because it’s a place where collectors can meet the raw energy behind an artwork, not just its surface.
Main Image: Tom Colaux, Trouble, 2025