A fishing-boat crossing, a house discovered in an old photograph, the changing colour of tropical water. In Inge Cornil’s PACIFIC WORKS, encounters made during travel become images that continue to develop long after the journey has ended. This selection brings together monumental paintings and works on Khadi, alongside landscapes connected with Papua, Sumba and French Polynesia. Together, they reveal an artist attentive to the ways a place can remain present through colour, material and memory.
Following Gauguin, finding her own route
In 2023, Cornil travelled to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, following the traces of Paul Gauguin. She wanted to understand his search for le sauvage — “the wild” — through her own encounters with the islands. Travelling by fishing boat, she experienced the ocean as a physical force, a presence that would later enter her work through its movement, depth and changing light.
That journey takes a particularly personal form in Mon ami, Gauguin. A photograph discovered in Gauguin’s studio on Hiva Oa became the starting point for a house within the image; memories of Cornil’s own crossing supplied the bay and the moving water around it. Historical reference and lived experience meet within one landscape.
From the landscape to the studio
In our interview, Cornil describes the importance of spending time in a place before the work can begin. Observation, isolation and unfamiliar rhythms sharpen her attention. Returning to Antwerp creates a further distance: memories reorganise themselves, and the landscape is reconsidered from another position.
The selection moves between the open colour of the large canvases and the concentrated marks of charcoal. Houses, foliage and water return in different forms, giving each work its own balance of recognisable detail and atmospheric space. Looking from one image to the next, the viewer can follow recurring shapes without being asked to read the works as a single fixed itinerary.
Selected works
Mon ami, Gauguin
A photograph found in Gauguin’s studio on Hiva Oa provided the image of the house: the home of a Chinese friend who lived nearby. Cornil combined it with memories of the bay and the movement of the Pacific during her own fishing-boat journey. She first painted a study, then translated passages into charcoal. Across eight panels, the work connects the historical photograph with the rhythm of an ocean crossing.
Artist: Inge Cornil
Series: PACIFIC WORKS
Title: Mon ami, Gauguin
Size: 156 × 230 cm
Medium: Charcoal on Khadi, wood, epoxy, UV varnish
Price: On request. Please contact the gallery for availability and further details.
Two adjoining panels create an expansive landscape of turquoise water, dark green vegetation and warm coral light. On the left, a house and palms appear to turn into their own reflection; on the right, the scene opens into darker, less clearly defined depths. The central division brings two different ways of seeing into one panoramic image.
Artist: Inge Cornil
Series: PACIFIC WORKS
Title: A2 14 34/D1 16 33 12*6 8 12
Size: 200 × 286 cm
Medium: Pigments on canvas
Price: On request. Please contact the gallery for availability and further details.
A grid of joined surfaces carries the eye down through pale yellow, ochre, turquoise and deep blue into earthy red-brown. Light gathers around a broad horizontal passage, while broken marks suggest reflections across water. The visible divisions give this tall work a measured structure through which colour appears to move continuously.
Artist: Inge Cornil
Series: PACIFIC WORKS
Title: A16 15 23/D34 12 7*0 2 28
Size: 213.5 × 123 cm
Medium: Natural pigments from the rainforest in Sumba on Khadi, marouflaged on canvas, wood
Price: On request. Please contact the gallery for availability and further details.
Pulau Koh. Papua
Dense charcoal marks describe a shoreline and vegetation above a broad expanse of blue-green water. Small traces of orange, pink and violet interrupt the darker drawing. The contrast between the tightly worked upper section and the more open water creates a shifting sense of distance, with reflections pulling the landscape towards the foreground.
Artist: Inge Cornil
Series: PACIFIC WORKS
Title: Pulau Koh. Papua
Size: 77.5 × 58 cm
Medium: Charcoal on Khadi, wood, pigments, epoxy, UV varnish
Price: On request. Please contact the gallery for availability and further details.
TAHITI
Deep teal and charcoal surround a luminous opening at the centre of the composition. Vertical forms suggest the enclosing walls of a ravine, drawing the eye towards a small pool and a distant passage of light. The work gives the landscape an intimate, sheltered character, with the viewer positioned within its depths.
Artist: Inge Cornil
Series: PACIFIC WORKS
Title: TAHITI
Size: 77.5 × 58 cm
Medium: Charcoal on Khadi, wood, pigments, epoxy, UV varnish
Price: On request. Please contact the gallery for availability and further details.
Saltwater Painting A2 5 9 7/D2 34 12 16*11 13 0
Rose, coral and ochre gather above a bright, foaming band of white, while turquoise water deepens towards the centre. A pale lower field creates a pause beneath the saturated colour. The composition holds the eye between stillness and turbulence, with the meeting of sky and water becoming its most charged passage.
Artist: Inge Cornil
Series: PACIFIC WORKS
Title: Saltwater Painting A2 5 9 7/D2 34 12 16*11 13 0
Size: 210 × 140 cm
Medium: Gesso and natural pigments on canvas
Price: On request. Please contact the gallery for availability and further details.
Saltwater Painting A5 36 2 23/D16 12 34 11*10 12 16 0
A broad sweep of pale colour cuts diagonally through violet, peach and golden yellow before meeting bands of turquoise and deep blue. The image suggests changing weather above an unsettled sea. Soft transitions and sudden shifts in colour make the surface feel in motion, as though several moments of light have accumulated within one view.
Artist: Inge Cornil
Series: PACIFIC WORKS
Title: Saltwater Painting A5 36 2 23/D16 12 34 11*10 12 16 0
Size: 170 × 200 cm
Medium: Gesso and natural pigments on canvas
Price: On request. Please contact the gallery for availability and further details.
Reconnection. SUMBA
A house appears within an intricate network of palms, foliage and sharply contrasting charcoal marks. Its roof provides a brief point of rest within the dense composition. Light passes through the uncoloured areas of the surface, allowing the building and vegetation to emerge together from the same rhythm of dark and pale forms.
Artist: Inge Cornil
Series: PACIFIC WORKS
Title: Reconnection. SUMBA
Size: 77.5 × 58 cm
Medium: Charcoal on Khadi, wood, epoxy, UV varnish
Price: On request. Please contact the gallery for availability and further details.
Morning glow at the end of the world. PULAU KOH, PAPUA
A small house sits beneath a mass of dark foliage, surrounded by translucent teal, violet, peach and yellow. In the foreground, long pink and brown marks describe the movement of water. The work’s warmth comes from these unexpected colour relationships, bringing the intimacy of a single dwelling into a wider, fluid landscape.
Artist: Inge Cornil
Series: PACIFIC WORKS
Title: Morning glow at the end of the world. PULAU KOH, PAPUA
Size: 77.5 × 58 cm
Medium: Charcoal on Khadi, wood, pigments, epoxy, UV varnish
Price: On request. Please contact the gallery for availability and further details.
About Inge Cornil
Inge Cornil (born 1977, Belgium) lives and works in Antwerp. She holds an MFA from St. Lucas, Antwerp, and has taught at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp since 2003. Her work has been presented at Art Antwerp, Art on Paper Brussels, BOZAR and the MADRE museum in Naples. Across painting and drawing, her research centres on the interaction of light, colour, material and spatial experience.
Enquiries and viewings
For availability, further images or to arrange a viewing, please contact Vroom & Varossieau at olivier@vroomandvarossieau.com. Prices are available on request.
Read our interview with Inge Cornil: “When the Landscape Becomes the Painting”
https://www.vroomandvarossieau.com/interviews/inge-cornil-bark-works-natural-pigments
