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This is an excerpt from the MEGA July 2025 Arts and Culture feature
Creative dynamo Solenn Heussaff, from a certain vantage point, looks like the consummate, prolific artist. But when all has been said and done, a painter knows that their work is ultimately measured by the human emotions and thoughts it incites. After all, an acrylicist is well aware of what a single, unadulterated stroke can do on an unfurled surface.
Over the last nine years, though, the French-Filipina has mounted multiple art exhibitions, including, as of this writing, a duo show, VITA, with textile artist Olivia d’Aboville. She has had three solos that took place before 2020, and there are hints of an upcoming group exhibit announcement later in May. Back in March, Heussaff also visited Hong Kong for the prestigious Art Basel, manifesting a lifelong goal. “Hopefully, one day, something like Art Basel is a dream of mine [to participate in].”
All of this demonstrates how dedicated Heussaff has been to her artistic pursuit. Yet, she considers it nothing beyond a serious hobby or devotion. “That’s why I enjoy it so much, because I’m not pressured to make it my living,” she explains. “It’s really my passion. It’s like something I love to do when I have free time.”
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A ROUGH DRAFT
Time has been the deciding factor, it seems. Let’s peek into her resumé. When you Google her name, the term ‘multi-hyphenate’ almost always appears next to it. Apart from painting, the fashion design graduate’s skill set extends further to modeling, television and film acting, hosting, and singing. Even more impressive is the fact that she’s been remarkably good at all of them since her breakout appearance in the reality television show Survivor: Philippines in 2010.
On the other hand, it’s just difficult to ignore the formative signs, ones that circle back to her supposed pastime. When Heussaff was only five years old, she did her own version of “Masks and Spirits,” a 1983 piece by the late, great Filipino artist Pacita Abad. Despite being a copy, which her father, Louis Paul, still has displayed in his office, Heussaff considers it her first-ever work of art. Her mother, Cynthia, seems to agree as well, as it has been a permanent fixture in the family residence, mainly for sentimental reasons. “I even tell my mom, ‘You have to give this away. But she’s like, ‘It’s your beginnings.’”
ABSTRACTION OF PROCESS
Set aside the prodigious talent and get a sense of the almost unvarnished, unassuming nature of Heussaff’s creative process. “I try to go to galleries,” she says. “Go through Pinterest, look at new artists, and get some inspiration.”
“By the time I’m inspired, I usually paint on one canvas [first]. I’ll order 15 canvases, which are all massive. I’ll start with one, and that one will probably take me three to four months,” Heussaff continues. “I’ll paint, scratch it out, paint [again]. I don’t do studies on a paper. I’ll do some lines, maybe write some ideas, some keywords. Then I’ll do color coding and everything, but I won’t actually sketch the painting small and then make it big.”
“Every day, I start from scratch—but on the same canvas. And usually, after a few months, something comes out. Then that first painting is what leads all the rest, and all the rest are so much easier because I have the process in mind,” she notes. “And then I write the story. I always write the story midway.”
Her openness allows more outside elements to become her source of inspiration, and mistakes transform into unexpected possibilities. In essence, Heussaff’s paintovers are no longer pre-story. They’ve become part of her grand exposition.
THE ARTIST IS CHANGED
Admitting to her newfound free-wheeling nature as a chance discovery, Heussaff is learning to embrace her new level of maturity. “I’m a very planned person, I like to plan ahead,” she says. “But the whole pandemic shifted that side of me, and I think also being a mom. I just really like [how] I’m living in the now.”
Credit her composure to the seemingly loose curation of her being, one she ensures is free of clutter and complications. As with art, it’s no longer Heussaff’s style to overprepare for the unpredictable life. I just became more picky, more choosy on where to put my energy. And I want to spend time with my kids in their first five, six years of life,” she says of her two daughters: Thylane Katana, 5, and Maëlys Lionel, 2, with Argentinian husband Nico Bolzico.
Suffice it to say, Heussaff is a real-life example of what an evolving, coalescing artist is today. She is one with extraordinary abilities in virtually everything, everywhere, all at once, which can be likened to a barrage of colors and textures that help tell a unified message. Still, she allows considerable restraint and patience—the negative space—to take precedence, for both clarity and impact. Because in today’s society, where five-second videos can fill one’s day and art can come as non-fungible tokens, the artist must strive to be more than one thing, but must never, ever loosen hold of the one that truly matters.
Read more about Solenn Heussaff’s journey as an artist in MEGA’s JULY 2025 issue now available on Readly, Magzter, Press Reader and Zinio.
Photographed by JERICK SANCHEZ. Art direction by BRIE VENTURA. Styling by GENO ESPIDOL for QURATOR. Sittings Editor STEF JUAN. Makeup by ZEE BAAYA. Hair by NELLY SEBOY.
