Hi, I’m Axelle!

Brussels-based illustrator.

I work in graphite, coloured pencil, ink, monotype, watercolour, and lino to capture the quiet beauty of human moments, reflecting on the connections between individual experience and wider social currents.

My portfolio spans personal series — from black ink portraits exploring relationships and identity to commissioned work such as the album cover for indie artist Daphne Gale, and editorial illustrations for articles on social issues such as housing rights and climate change. Urban sketching remains a recurring practice.

Due to my background in social anthropology, I am particularly engaged in multimodal experiments at the intersection of art and anthropology. I am currently on the Artist’s Way journey.

More information about research projects in anthropology

  • 2020-Current

    Ateliers Saint Luc, Brussels, Belgium — Certificate in Graphic Design & Illustration

    2017-2018

    Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands — Arts & Society MA

    2014-2017

    University of Kent, Canterbury, UK — Cultural Studies & Social Anthropology BA

  • Steal This MagaZine (2015-2017)

    Editor-In-Chief of an independent art and politics magazine, to which I also contributed articles and illustrations. The magazine won Best Entertainment Piece 2017, Best Newcomer 2016, and Best Specialist 2016 from the Student Publishing Awards in the UK. See the magazine.

    
‘In One Vital Motion’ (2017)

    Directed and produced an ethnographic film on the poetry scene in Canterbury, which won the University of Kent’s Public Engagement Prize 2017. See the film.

    ‘When Did You Become a Woman?’ (2015)

    Directed and produced a short documentary video on gender projected in Margate’s Turner Contemporary Museum exhibition hall in 2015. See the video.

  • THE ART OF OBSERVATION Exhibition (Manchester, 5-7 April 2024)

    Editorial illustration featured in the travelling exhibition as part of AnthroArt’s initiative to bring together anthropological writing and art. If anthropologists are masters of the art of observation, then what kind of art can their observations inspire?

    SOCIAL INCLUSION THROUGH THE LENS OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND ART Exhibition (Amsterdam, 2023-24)

    Editorial illustration featured in the travelling exhibition as part of AnthroArt’s initiative to bring together anthropological writing and art. AnthroArt is a project developed by Antropedia in partnership with Namla (Netherlands) and Ambigrama (Portugal) co-financed by the European Union through the Creative Europe program.

    ARTA OBSERVATIEI Exhibition (Bucharest, 2023)

    Editorial illustration featured in the travelling exhibition as part of AnthroArt’s initiative to bring together anthropological writing and art. If anthropologists are masters of the art of observation, what does art inspired by their observations look like? The exhibition builds a bridge between academia and art and highlights the transformative power of the two fields, but also of interdisciplinary collaboration.

    MY BODY MY CHOICE Exhibition (Copenhagen, 2022)

    Researcher and Curator of the exhibition for the European Green Party and Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament. It tackled the theme of bodily autonomy and rising threats against the right to abortion. The exhibition included selected works from artists and activists supporting pro-choice movements from across and beyond Europe – in Poland, Italy, the UK, Ukraine, Germany, Turkey and Iran.

    HELLO WORLD! Exhibition (Utrecht, 2018)

    Researcher and Curator of the Cabinet of Curiosities of the HELLO WORLD! exhibition, which showcased artifacts and experiments illustrating the culture of ‘creative coders’.

    Read more:
    Van Wynsberghe, A. (2019). ‘The cabinet of curiosities: between curatorial and ethnographic practice’, entanglements, 2(1): 126-142.

Let’s create something meaningful together.