Sketches - ballpoint on paper
Filip Firlefijn’s sketches began as a discipline of speed, observation, and repetition. Created rapidly and directly—often in ballpoint pen rather than pencil—they formed both a daily practice and an artistic language in their own right. Over time, this process resulted in a body of approximately 1,500 drawings.
What started as training gradually developed into a distinct style. Many of these works also became the foundation for later large-format paintings, where the immediacy of the line was translated into color and scale.
Working in ballpoint pen brings its own demands. Unlike pencil, it does not easily allow soft shading, correction, or gradual erasure. Tone must be built through pressure, layering, rhythm, and density of line. In that sense, the medium can be more unforgiving than traditional drawing tools and recalls older line-based methods of constructing form through repeated marks.
The aim of these sketches was never strict photographic proportion, but neither was it pure caricature. Instead, subtle shifts in proportion, emphasis, and expression were used to reveal character. Something is added beyond one-to-one likeness: an intensification that often increases presence and recognizability rather than reducing it.
Fast, intuitive, and expressive, the sketches remain central to Firlefijn’s visual practice. They capture the moment where observation becomes interpretation, and where line alone can suggest personality, movement, and identity.
Paintings
Filip Firlefijn’s painting is shaped by two parallel influences: the visual energy of Franco-Belgian comic culture and a lasting dialogue with international art history. Humor, clarity, and immediacy meet broader reflections on portraiture, fame, memory, and cultural value.
series with color fields in the faces (e.g. Ali, Federer, Senna, Davis)
series with single color background (e.g. Warhol, Sellers, Picasso, Keaton, Chaplin)
series with red faces (Proust, Cartier-Bresson, Godard, Tolstoy)
series with multicolored background or color changes in the face, still moderetely ‘wild’ (e.g. Hockney, Bacon, Hirst, Kahlo)
series with muticolored background or color changes in the face, and wilder progression (e.g. Obama, Boris Johnson, Yves Klein, O’Keeffe, Russell)
vermillion and magenta series (most paintings)
Like Andy Warhol, Firlefijn draws inspiration from the public sphere. Today, however, that sphere extends far beyond newspapers and television into the digital world and the internet. We live within a constant stream of images, opinions, and information. His work responds to that reality while asking what still remains meaningful within it.
Large-format portraits and bold color fields often combine expressive simplicity with psychological depth. His magenta portraits on vermilion-red grounds can appear like sketches for more monumental or classical paintings, inviting the viewer to complete the image through imagination. Beneath their accessible surface lies a deeper tension: between visibility and disappearance, fame and anonymity, irony and seriousness, mortality and the desire to endure.
The internet has intensified the idea that “everyone can be famous.” More voices are visible than ever before, yet the permanence of the spotlight remains uncertain. Faces, like books, can quickly vanish in abundance. Firlefijn’s portraits reflect that fragile balance between cultural value and forgetfulness.
At the same time, his work engages with one of the defining questions of the present: the rise of artificial intelligence. As AI increasingly enters art, music, film, and literature, new questions emerge. What kind of value will AI-generated culture hold? What remains uniquely human in creativity? Can ethical development keep pace with technological power?
Rather than rejecting technology, Firlefijn’s portraits underline the lasting significance of human imagination, memory, and critical thought. They also point toward visibility in a broader sense: whose faces are seen, whose voices are heard, and who has historically remained in the background.
His paintings seek not only to capture attention, but to transform attention into reflection. In that way, contemporary imagery becomes a doorway to craftsmanship, depth, and renewed cultural curiosity.
Earlier projects with the large paintings:
“Kunstnacht” Brienz
Prominent people
Berne
Factory
Track and field
Exhibitions
Outside the mainstream. Galleries and organizers who support artists in gaining recognition.
USA
Artexpo New York, Artifact booth, New York – 2023
Artifact, “Continuity”, New York – 2022
ARTBOX.PROJECT New York 1.0, Artbox Projects @ ARMORY ART Week, Stricoff Gallery, New York – 2018
Spectrum Miami, booth 513 (Arttour International), Miami – 2021
Berry Lee Shoes, shoe store, Los Angeles – solo – 2013
Zenith Art & Fashion, art and fashion gallery, Miami – 2019
UK
Contemporary Art Curator Magazine, “Butterfly Effect”, online due to Covid – 2022
Parallax Art Fair, Chelsea Old Town Hall, London – 2017
IT
1st International Art Biennale of the World, Palermo – 2021
DE
Ostrale '11, Dresden – 2011
SP
ARTBOX.PROJECT Barcelona 1.0, Artbox Projects, Barcelona – 2021
CH
Art Exhibition Filip Firlefijn, October 11–20, Bahnhofstrasse 31, Interlaken – solo – 2024
Square 2 GmbH, Interlaken – solo – 2024
ARTBOX.PROJECT Basel 1.0, Artbox Projects @ ART BASEL Week, Basel-Mulhouse Airport – 2017
Artbox Gallery, Zurich – 2019–2021
ARTBOX.PROJECT Zurich 1.0, Artbox Projects @ Bahnhof Zurich, Zurich – 2019
Bundesplatz Bern, Bern – solo – 2016
Hotel Dorint Blüemlisalp, @ Erich von Däniken Symposium, Beatenberg – solo – 2017
Kunstnacht Brienz, Brienz – 2014–2017
Restaurant Horn, Interlaken – solo – 2017–2022
Neuhaus, Interlaken – solo – 2017
Congress Interlaken, @ David Garrett concert, Interlaken – solo – 2016
Wineart Restaurant, Interlaken – solo – 2014–2016
Schloss Interlaken, Interlaken – solo – 2014
Vertigo Gallery, Interlaken – solo – 2014
Kunst-ufem-Marktplatz, Interlaken – 2014
Blaue Mäntig, Kultur & Bar, Interlaken – solo – 2013
Movie World, Interlaken – solo – 2011–2013
Kulturgarage, Interlaken – 2011
Awards
Outside the mainstream. Galleries and organizers who support artists in gaining recognition.
IT
Effetto Arte / Art Now / Russo
5th International Prize Leonardo da Vinci, National Museum of Science and Technology, Milan – April 5, 2023
Artistic Career Award 2023, Teatro del Casinò, Sanremo – September 16, 2023
4th International Prize Leonardo da Vinci – February 6, 2022
International Prize Ambassador of Art – 2021
International Prize Dante Alighieri – 2021
The Best Modern and Contemporary Artists – 2021
Art Olympic Prize – 2021
International Prize David Michelangelo – 2020
UK
Contemporary Art Collectors
Harmony for Humanity – The Global Consciousness Art Prize, Contemporary Art Curator Magazine – August 12, 2023
International Art Award Voices of Tomorrow, Contemporary Art Curator Magazine – May 5, 2022
Collector’s Vision International Art Award, Contemporary Art Curator Magazine – 2021
Power of Creativity Art Prize, Contemporary Art Curator Magazine – August 7, 2021