Born in 1986 in Flemish Hasselt, Brecht Evens studied at the LUCA School of Arts in Ghent. Today, he lives and works in Paris. His international breakthrough as a comics artist came in 2009 with «The Wrong Place», for which he won the Haarlem Comic Festival’s Willy Vandersteen Award for Best Dutch-Language Graphic Novel, as well as an award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.

«The Wrong Place», the first example of his work’s distinctive unconventional watercolour technique devoid of outlines, was enthusiastically received. Without panels, and in wonderfully subtle and bright colours, the characters, backgrounds and painted colourful text merge with one another. Sophisticated interplay of superimposition and transparency brings out the characters’ inner workings, making feelings and atmospheres visible. He followed this success with the books «The Making Of» (2011) and «Panther» (2014), in which he developed his style further and fascinated readers again with almost magical, lusciously glowing images. «Paris», a book in which Evens portrayed his adopted home, was published in 2016 by Fondation Louis Vuitton as part of its Travel Book series. At the 2019 Angoulême International Comics Festival, his latest book Les Rigoles (Eng. «The City of Belgium»), about three people and their journeys through an overlong frenzied night, won the jury’s Fauve Special Award.

Evens has created a large fresco in Antwerp (2012) and another in Brussels (2018). He also works for the press and in the fashion industry. Cartoonmuseum Basel presents originals by this Belgian artist, some of which are in large formats, in a comprehensive exhibition covering all his work.

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