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About my work

Séverine Marie Pierre BURGERS

Born January 27, 1973 in Brussels, Belgium

I am Séverine Burgers, an artist based in Tirana, Albania. I paint with oil and occasionally make ceramic sculptures.

Through my works, I explore the landscapes of inner emotion - passion, compassion, love and hate. My art lives in contrast: vibrant, yet melancholic. A subtle, yet expressive, colour palette. I use contrast not only as a visual tool, but as a language - where intensity meets vulnerability and where softness coexists with tension.

I paint instinctively, allowing the process to unfold.

Each work a dialogue between shadow and light, revealing what words often cannot.

Each canvas a fragment of honesty, uncovering the truth of emotion.

My art is a confrontation with what we feel, but can not speak. While I create, the Essence reveals itself, transforming into Substance.

About me

I started painting in 2009 when I left my hometown Brussels and my job as landscape architect to move to the Solomon Islands in the Pacific.

With my Master in Communication Sciences, my Bachelor as landscape architect, a few years of drawing academy and mostly, with lots of dedication and determination and, perhaps, a foolish stubbornness, my passion for painting took roots in the Solomon Islands. The simple and basic life in the remote Solomon Islands was an ideal seedbed for an aspiring artist. The authenticity of the indigenous people stimulated my desire to capture raw inner impressions into visual art.

Looking for a different challenge in 2014, I moved to Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, for a three year period. By then, I had a 9 months old daughter and already a considerable collection of drawings and paintings.

Busy and densely packed Dhaka vibrates at every corner. I was and I am still impressed by the serenity and the calm joy of the Bangladeshi women, which stands in harsh contrast with the overwhelming experience of this hectic and bustling city. In “Reverence of a Bengali Daughter” is more then a series of works. It is an hommage to the graceful resilience of the Bangladeshi women.

Rural North-Macedonia followed in 2017. During 7 years, my passion for nature took form. I draw much of my inspiration from nature. As the horizon divides the earth from the sky, I explore where light meets darkness. The places we hide, and the places we shine. And the stories that live in the space between.

Since 2023, Tirana, the capital of Albania, is our family's new destination. From here, I continue my work, inspired by this fusion of pastures and pavements, by the duality which is an intrinsic part of this city.

Because through my art, I seek not to resolve opposites, but to honor them. Light and shadow are not enemies - they are companions in the story of the human heart.

Education & Training

1991: Figure drawing, Studied under Oswald Kuijken, Belgium

1995: Master in Communication Sciences, VUB, Belgium

2000: Landscape Architecture, Institut Arthur Haulot, Belgium

2008: Figure drawing, Academie van Fijne Kunsten, Anderlecht, Belgium

2012: 3 day Oil painting seminar under Saroj Ananta-auoyporn, Thailand

2012: 5 day Oil painting seminar under Veronica Cestau, Uruguay

2016 3 month training for ceramic sculpture under Petra de Vree in Dhaka, Bangladesh

2017 Training for ceramic sculpture under Tatjana Ristovska and Kerakamika in Skopje, Republic of North-Macedonia.

Exhibitions & Art Residences

2016 October: "from Essence to Substance", Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh (solo exhibition)
2019 April: "Mother Medea", solo exhibition at Cultural Centre Kocho Racin, Skopje, Republic of North-Macedonia
2019 February: Part of a group exhibition for “Celebration of Tango”, Cultural Centre Kocho Racin, Skopje, Republic of North-Macedonia
2021 February: Part of a group exhibition for “Celebration of Tango”, Cultural Centre Kocho Racin, Skopje, Republic of North-Macedonia
2022 July: International Art Residence, Valandovo, Republic of North-Macedonia
2022 February: Part of a group exhibition for “Celebration of Tango”, Cultural Centre Kocho Racin, Skopje, Republic of North-Macedonia
2023 July: International Art Residence, Valandovo, Republic of North-Macedonia
2024 December: GAT- Affordable Art Fair, curated by Edit Pula for Tirana Art Gallery-GAT, Tirana, Albania
2024 December: Interviewed by Mimosa Ahmeti, Journalist at RTSH
2025 March: “Untamed”, exhibition in collaboration with Isabella Catoni and Genta Mema at TULLA Cultural Centre, Tirana, Albania
2025 March: Interviewed by Mimosa Ahmeti, Journalist at RTSH
2025 May: “Art Beyond Borders”, group exhibition at CIC, Tirana, Albania
2025 May: “STREHA Gala - Art Auction”, my work “Entangled” was auctioned for the highest bid of all the participating artists
2025 June: “Untamed Gala”, exhibition in collaboration with Isabella Catoni and Genta Mema at Kodra e Kuajve, Durres, Albania
2025 June: Interviewed by Ergys Bambi, Journalist at Radio Wave Tirana
2025 September: “In Reverence of a Bengali Daughter”, solo exhibition at CIC, Tirana, Albania

Collections

Works held in private collections, i.a. Albania, Bangladesh, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, The Republic of North-Macedonia, The Solomon Islands and The United Kingdom and The United States.