Tina Gillen studied painting at the Hochschule für angewandte Kunst in Vienna (1992–1996), and obtained a postgraduate degree from the Higher Institute for Fine arts in Antwerp (1996–1999). She uses the medium of painting to slow down, manipulate and reflect upon images. In the continuous flow of images in our current society, she creates works that, although partly recognisable, are elusive. Her compositions capture our gaze through a combination of seduction and irritation. In her graduation work, Häusersequenz [Housing Series,1996], T. Gillen explores how people live and make their homes their own. The twenty-four paintings in this series are like portraits, interchangeable variations of middle-class detached houses in a Western suburb. Her mise-en-scènes are not a reflection of an existing world; they are mostly uninhabited or abandoned, reflections on ‘why are we here’.

Her work always starts with self-made or found images, photographs she finds in a variety of media. She searches for motifs and fragments that move her in today’s visual world, typically demonstrating her interest in spatial, architectural constructions and the relationship between humans and nature. She abstracts and deconstructs the chosen images, playing with scale, isolating fragments and using them to build a layered new composition. Partly recognisable, partly alienating, they evoke a feeling of detachment. For every exhibition she starts her research from a specific interest in spatial organisation and infrastructure, resulting in a group of works coming together under the title of the show. In Greetings From (2008) she takes as her starting point typical holiday postcards, depicting swimming pools, palm trees and other clichéd views of nature. In Jockey Club (2004) she explored elements of the São Paulo Hippodrome.

Since the beginning of her practice, she has created murals and site-specific interventions. Here, the painting ceases to be canvas and becomes part of the context. T. Gillen analyses elements of the space and combines them with elements that intrigue her. These murals deal with the subtle interaction between two and three dimensions, with how perspective and space can relate to each other. She designed murals and spatial constructions in M Leuven (The Falls/Water Chute, 2010) and Mudam (Monkey Cage, 2012), as well as architectural spaces that step into dialogue with her canvases, such as for her exhibition Echo in Victor Horta’s Council Room at BOZAR Brussels (2015).

In 2022, T. Gillen represented Luxembourg at the Venice Biennale with the exhibition Faraway So Close. Without depicting humans, her compositions bear the traces of human constructions in nature, with an interest in phenomena beyond human control, such as natural disasters and climate change. In terms of painting, this translates into geometric elements, contrasting colours and the use of various techniques. Allowing the texture and tactility of the paint to show disrupts the reading of the work as an image of something else. Drippings and paint marks on her canvases break through the illusion of the image.

T. Gillen has exhibited internationally. Her work is part of many collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Mudam and the Nationalmusée du Luxembourg. She has lived in Belgium since 1996 and has taught painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp since 2007. She had residencies at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam (1999) and at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York (2006–2007), and has been awarded the Prix Collioure (1998) and the Premio di pittura del Golfo della Spezia (2000), amongst others.