Philippe Cognée

Philippe Cognée translates photographs and videos he takes of his surroundings into evocative, layered paintings. For his early paintings and roughly hewn wooden sculptures, he chose figures and mythological scenes as his primary subject matter. Later he began working in encaustic, an ancient process in which pigment is mixed with beeswax and fixed with heat after application to the canvas. Referring to the medium—a difficult and unusual choice—Cognée highlights its ephemeral, diffuse visual qualities, allowing him “to make things disappear in light.”