When Gommaar Gilliams opens up about his work, he refers to Arcadia. The Arcadia is an historical term that has been in use since Roman times designating an imaginary, idyllic place. This concept is the starting point of Gilliams? paintings, in which he ties together various painterly influences. From Italian frescoes and Renaissance figures to East-Indian miniatures. He uses this symbolism, derived from different periods and cultures, to populate his paintings. Gilliams is a lone wolf in his own painted world, utterly inescapable and sovereign. The symbols in his works refer to a world characterized by melancholy, desire, and the duality between day and night. Gilliams casts a spell of poetic and allegorical narratives and transforms elements such as rain, flora, swans, rainbows and buildings into painterly motifs. Rather than providing those images with a new meaning, he is concerned with the image itself. Viewers are not obliged to decode all references, follow every twist and turn in his symbolism. These are merely a guide, the conveyance of an emotion. The titles often are textual references, which the artist considers literary associations with the overall atmosphere of the paintings.Painter / artist °1982 Lier, Belgium Lives and works in Hasselt, BelgiumGrote Prijs Ernest Albert, Mechelen, BE De zee, CC Keerbergen, BE Prijs van de stad Harelbeke, BE Dexiaprijs, Brussel, BE Grote Prijs voor schilderkunst A.Blomme, Dendermonde, BE