Fabricia Lepoutre, spaces with a life of their own
Bruxelles Culture · Espace Art Gallery · 3–27 July 2025
For her exhibition in Brussels, Fabricia Lepoutre reflects on her international journey and intuitive approach to painting. Interiors, objects and landscapes form a personal world shaped by memories, travels and sensations.
On the occasion of her exhibition at Espace Art Gallery, Fabricia looks back on a journey that took her from Ecuador to Brittany, via South Africa, Paris and Florida. A life shaped by travel, encounters and a love of painting that began in childhood.
Born in Quito in 1961, she discovered the pleasure of painting at an early age alongside her mother, herself an artist. After ten years in South Africa, she continued her studies in Paris and then at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Florida, graduating as an illustrator in 1984.
Back in France, a first job at a printing company did not fulfil her desire to create. She turned to painting full-time. In northern France, where she lived with her four children, exhibitions followed. Still lifes, interiors and colourful African markets already bore the traces of her travels.
Painting what comes naturally
Fabricia describes an instinctive process, guided by what she loves and feels. From African markets to domestic interiors, her subjects evolve with the places she experiences and the changes in her life. Memory and emotion give these spaces their distinctive character.
“I have always instinctively painted what I liked.”
In her paintings, an open door, a staircase, a table or a bouquet invites the eye to wander. Familiar objects take their place in compositions where interiors and landscapes respond to one another. Now based in Brittany, she finds new subjects there that extend an imagination nourished far beyond the region’s borders.
A feeling for materials
On thick linen, Fabricia combines acrylic, chalk, pastel and casein paint. The latter, discovered through her partner, an interior decorator, holds a special place in her practice. She values its matt effects and its presence on the canvas.
Alongside this exploration of materials, her family’s support has been important. In the interview, she speaks warmly of her grandfather, her mother and her children: their perspectives and encouragement have accompanied her path as an artist.
An encounter in Brussels
For Brussels, she brings together works close to what she lives, feels and wishes to share. The exhibition invites us into this world: spaces inhabited by objects, colour and the quiet presence of the lives we imagine within them.
Read the original interview (French)
Text adapted from “Exposition : Fabricia Lepoutre”, an interview by Daniel Bastié for Bruxelles Culture.
Exhibition: 3–27 July 2025 · Espace Art Gallery · 83 rue de Laeken, Brussels.