Johan Van Mullem opens his inks to other hypotheses, a fullness where light, finding refuge in matter, unfolds an interweaving of subtle associations that draws the eye into a meditative dive. Visionary faces, dissolved by an interior sfumato effect, are now succeeded by horizons crossed by nascent greens, ethereal blues and glowing ochres. Caught in a double movement of sedimentation and expansion, his cartoons and canvases, now sources of radiance, stratify and liberate themselves, revealing their depth. Light, sovereign, emanates from the layers themselves, revealing transparencies and bringing forth atmospheres of celestial mists and windswept expanses. Each work seems to be in tune with the elements, permeated by their instability and shifting breath. The eye perceives the humid air, the density of the clouds, the shiver of restless water. As a counterpoint, a fleeting silhouette emerges: an inverted, drenched, liquefied nude, bright yellow, almost phosphorescent - an epiphany whose fragile suspense captures both its own appearance and its disappearance. Van Mullem works with engraving and printing inks, which he dilutes and then reapplies in patient layers. A penetrating luminescence then spreads, where each touch retains the memory of what was covered. And even at the heart of abstraction, his works retain the memory of solar golds and the liquid element, like a persistence buried beneath the material. Born in Congo in 1959 and nourished by his early years spent in Tunisia, the artist has imprinted his practice with the mark of his travels and movements, giving rise to a body of work that captures all the pulsations of the world.