Dutch artist Elly Strik (b. 1961, The Hague), who is based in Brussels, uses drawings and painting to explore the deepest caverns of the human soul. She depicts dreams, impulses and hallucinations in a unique style that shares similarities with the work of Goya, Ensor, Symbolism and the theories of Sigmund Freud. In her work – for which she uses charcoal, graphite, chalk, ink, pastel, oil and enamel paint – she effortlessly alternates small, intimate formats with monumental volumes of some two or three metres. This is also the case with Freud’s Sofa (2007-2012), in which she depicts the psychoanalyst’s famous couch in her characteristic, subdued colour palette and with a striking texture.
