Josephine Verbist
Walking the Edge of Wonder
Painting as a restless movement between place and self
Opening of the Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Genua - from september 16th to 30th 2021.
Josephine Verbist paints from urgency rather than comfort. Her practice is driven by necessity a way of breathing through chaos, of translating inner movement into gesture, colour, and form. Painting is not a product, but a process of staying present, alive, and in dialogue with the world.
Her works unfold as fragments of an open conversation: with herself, with place, and with what resists naming. They do not resolve; they linger.
Josephine Verbist’s painting unfolds as a continuous movement between inner urgency and lived experience. Her works are not constructed to resolve, but to remain open — holding traces of emotion, memory, and place in a state of becoming. Each canvas feels like a fragment of an ongoing dialogue, where gesture replaces narration and colour becomes a carrier of weight rather than ornament.
Her practice resists polish and finality. Layers are interrupted, brushstrokes remain visible, and negative space breathes as an active presence. Travel, distance, and a nomadic rhythm quietly shape her visual language, not as imagery but as sensation. What emerges is a body of work that invites pause and attentiveness — paintings that do not explain themselves, but linger.
 Wounded buildingCourtesy of the artist |  transection of architectural ligamentsCourtesy of the artist |  ArterioArchCourtesy of the artist |  Aortic FoyerCourtesy of the artist |  In the city's embrace, wreckage distills, bending planes unseenCourtesy of the artist |
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 Stadium №2Courtesy of the artist |
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BIO
Josephine Verbist is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in painting as a form of necessity rather than representation. From an early age, drawing and painting functioned as a way of navigating inner experience, a sensibility that continues to inform her work today.
She has exhibited across the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Germany, and Italy, developing a practice marked by vulnerability, resistance, and material honesty. Alongside her visual work, she explores writing and poetry as parallel forms of expression, expanding her artistic language beyond the canvas.
PUBLICATIONS & EXHIBITIONS
Josephine Verbist has presented her work in solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe, attracting the attention of collectors, architects, and independent institutions. Her artistic practice extends into publishing, most notably with Knalrood is mijn naam / Bright Red Is My Name, a book that brings together her poetry and visual work into a unified narrative.
PRACTICE & MATERIALITY
Josephine’s paintings are physical records of movement — emotional, spatial, and internal. Colour is never decorative; it carries weight and instability. Earthy browns, muted greens, bruised reds, and flashes of white appear as traces rather than statements. Brushstrokes remain visible, layered, interrupted. Missteps are not erased; they are essential.
Negative space plays an active role in her compositions. Absence breathes, holds tension, and becomes a site of becoming. Each canvas feels suspended mid-gesture, capturing a moment that refuses completion.
Travel is not a theme but a rhythm within her work. Extended journeys through distant landscapes often lived slowly and intimately seep into her visual language. Her paintings function as emotional maps, holding dust, distance, silence, and the quiet shifts that occur far from home.
