Brigitte Lahaie: CRI édition spéciale Expo Paris 2024

Erika Cool is a Belgian artist of Dutch origin whose work focuses on the pictorial representation of iconic figures from popular culture. Initially trained in fashion design, she developed early on a particular sensitivity to image, composition, and visual impact. Her professional experience in communication and visual aesthetics continues to enrich her artistic practice, giving her works a subtle balance between formal rigor and expressiveness.

Her approach is rooted in a figurative tradition that she reinterprets with a contemporary use of color and material. Through her portraits, Erika Cool explores the construction of the icon and the persistence of certain figures in the collective imagination. With an empathy and delicacy that echo her own presence, she paints these icons as if projecting herself into their world a discreet icon herself, yet deeply engaged in her view of the world.

Her work explores the tension between immediate recognition and artistic reinterpretation, between cultural memory and subjectivity. Each portrait reveals both the uniqueness of the figure depicted and the artist’s intimate signature. The person is recognizable, but always filtered through Erika Cool’s own universe. Thus, her works offer a dual reading, both as homage and original creation, giving these popular figures a new and distinctive dimension.

Based in Belgium, Erika Cool regularly exhibits across Europe. Her works are included in private collections and circulate in a variety of contexts, from independent galleries to international platforms dedicated to contemporary art. Among her projects, the portrait offered to Brigitte Lahaie for her birthday was selected by the publisher of a book dedicated to the artist, illustrating how the generosity and authenticity of her practice go beyond simple representation to engage in a living dialogue with the cultural world that inspires her.