Shirley Villavicencio Pizango (1988, Lima, Peru) lives and works in Ghent. Her paintings seem to hover on the border between drawing and painting. First she draws the outlines of her subject (mostly portraits or still lifes) with acrylic paint, then she quickly but precisely vibrates them with the brush in vivid colours. Painting with acrylics allows her to paint quickly and intuitively. Some parts of her paintings look unfinished, and if there is any perspective at all, it is distorted. Her style is very recognisable; one senses a close kinship with Matisse and Picasso, with whom she 'engaged in an almost permanent dialogue intérieur'.

Villavicencio Pizango's powerful portraits are painted from live models or analogue photographs. The artist often portrays herself, but also her friends and family, with whom she has a personal, sometimes intimate relationship. The portraits are not an exact representation of her models, but rather a personal interpretation in which she can express her thoughts and feelings.

Villavicencio Pizango has a strong interest in otherness. In this sense, her work is very inclusive and diverse. She portrays women as proud, self-confident people, averse to sensuality or exoticism. She avoids emphasising the personal background of the person portrayed, thus arriving at an obvious form of diversity.

Shirley Villavicencio Pizango is Peruvian but has lived in Belgium for almost half her life. In her work, she reserves a prominent place for people of colour. They stand in the foreground and look the viewer in the eye. Despite living in Belgium for many years, the artist has a very strong attachment to Peru. On the other hand, she has been influenced by Western art history. Her identity lies between two cultures.

What immediately stands out in her portraits are the white lips. When Villavicencio Pizango arrived in Belgium sixteen years ago, she spoke neither Dutch nor English, and as the knowledge of Spanish among our population is rather limited, she felt to some extent linguistically deprived. As a result, she does not fill in the lips of the people she portrays; they remain empty, so to speak.

The titles of her paintings suggest that her work is less light-hearted than it might seem at first glance. As Bart Cassiman writes: 'Despite the colourful palette, these are not cheerful paintings. They do, however, exude an insidious openness that is inimitable and could mislead some people.¹

In her studio, Villavicencio Pizango surrounds herself with all kinds of objects: curios, textiles, ethnic masks (which she collects), terracotta vases, wicker furniture, flowers and plants. These elements form the basis of her still lifes, which can also be seen as self-portraits. They paint a picture of the artist and her identity, which is a kind of crossover between South America and Belgium.