In the exhibition 'A Foray into My Realm', Antwerp-based painter Nick Andrews (1972, London, UK) shows a series of recent works and gives an insight into some intriguing sketchbooks that are often the starting point for the larger version on canvas.

Nick Andrews' work is figurative, colourful and narrative. They are direct representations of imaginary worlds. In his paintings, he merges events with stories and images from films and books, but always leaving room for interpretation. The figure of Champagne Charlie and his entourage often recurs. Inspiration is the world of the 19th-century bourgeoisie full of grandeur and decadence.

Andrews experiments as Champagne Charlie sang. With devotion, in a beautiful setting where laws and rules fall away and everything seems to be about pleasure and enjoyment. It is about what is beautiful, attractive and exciting.

In his works lies the suggestive power of painting showing a world all its own. A world in which Dionysus, the god of intoxication and indulgence, of ecstasy, holds sway. A world in which opposites are dissolved and borders erased.

Like an illusionist, Andrews plays with outward appearances and blurs the boundaries between the fantastic and the real. In a game of appearing and disappearing, figures stand in the sets or merge into them. Recognisable things are placed in a mysterious atmosphere. It is not about what we literally see. Entertainment has a flip side in this staged world full of loneliness, gambling addiction, duality and confrontation. Dark silhouettes appear, faces hide emotions, they are hidden away behind a hat or abstracted into a plane of colour.

Nick Andrews' oeuvre is bathed in a euphoric, nostalgic and melancholic atmosphere. The paintings are formally constructed with gestural brushstrokes and a flourish of colours in which complementary colours predominate. The texture of the paintings is lively: elaborate forms and fleetingly marked details alternate. His images are intense and leave a strong impression. Recurring elements are cut-outs, reflections, light and shadow effects and abstraction in colour and form. Gradually, form takes over from the theme. The spatial aspect creates a different reality, in a well considered scenography.

Nick Andrews lives and works in Antwerp and Saint-Bonnet Tronçais, France. He studied Painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In 2004, he was on residency at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. In 2009, he was Laureate of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts. Important solo and group exhibitions include Salon de Peinture (2019, M HKA, Antwerp), Sanguine. Luc Tuymans on Baroque (2018, Prada Fondazione, Milan), Within Me (2016, De Warande, Turnhout) & Brabant Fauvists, a selection by Nick Andrews (2016, FeliXart, Drogenbos). His work is part of several private and public collections including the Flemish Parliament, the National Lottery, University of Antwerp and the Musée de la Tapisserie et des Arts Textiles (TAMAT), Tournai. Nick Andrews is a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp.