Lives and works between Limburg and Brussels.

The paintings of Ilke Heuts  (1993, Belgium)  take you on a journey through a world of vibrant colors and dreamy scenes, where figures and objects are arranged like still lifes within a space. The subjects are often inspired by found objects, sourced both from the immediate environment and from websites such as second-hand marketplaces and e-commerce platforms. Removed from their original context, these objects acquire a sense of the past. They suggest a story, as if they are fragments of a larger whole.

Recurring themes include children's toys and other plastic materials, referencing the childlike act of constructing one's own world while simultaneously pointing to banality and the transience of consumer society. At first glance, she seems to invite the viewer to drift into a dream, but the dream is not without cracks. The figures are often placed in empty, mysterious spaces that pierce the illusion of the dream. The emptiness surrounding them renders the world she depicts alienating and elusive, making the dream never feel entirely real. In this way, her work balances between the allure of dreaming and the reality of our time.