Berlinde de Bruyckere at Yvon Lambert, New York, Oct 10th - Nov 15th

Exhibition Description:

Flemish artist Berlinde de Bruyckere (b. Ghent 1964) will present new work for her first solo exhibition in the United States. Yvon Lambert will introduce this celebrated sculptor whose transitory works first came to prominence in the early twenty first century; most famous for her sculptures of horses arranged in complex positions.

De Bruyckere's work won international acclaim when in 2003 her seminal work, The Black Horse, was exhibited in the Italian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. Since then, she has participated in the Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art and has been included in the New Museum of Contemporary Art’s current exhibition After Nature. She has also exhibited at Hauser & Wirth, Switzerland; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany; Foundation for Contemporary Art, Netherlands; La Maison Rouge, Fondation Antoine de Galbert, France and Galleria Continua, Italy.

Berlinde de Bruyckere’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Saatchi Gallery, United Kingdom; Kunst Museum Luzern, Switzerland and the De Pont Foundation, Netherlands. A new fully illustrated book on De Bruyckere work will be published by STEIDL in the fall.

De Bruyckere's work as an artist responds to ubiquitous suffering and loneliness by showing us the beauty in our vulnerability. Images of pain and human fragility have moved her to respond with compelling wax and epoxy sculptures that are filled with quiet pathos. De Bruyckere always creates her sculptures without heads because faces are too accessible and would rather the viewer focused on the rest of the body. She feels that the pieces are communicative enough in their bodies and gestures, and don’t need heads to be complete.

Her sculptures often begin with a found object, around which De Bruyckere imagines the figures. She begins a complex process of photographing models in hundreds of intricate poses, then choosing a position and makes a cast of the parts of the body which she believes to be essential to that position. De Bruyckere uses the cast to make a silicone mould; the beginning of an elaborate process which results with the artist painting on multiple layers of wax pigments by hand.

This subtle coloring process leads to incredible realism to human skin, the result of numerous thin layers. It is these layers that often make the figures appear emaciated and bruised and at the same time generating an overwhelming sense of peace. It is this duality that allows the work to remain ambiguous. De Bruyckere's work transcends recent events and responds to the broader concepts of anguish and humanity’s desire to assist and to protect the afflicted.

Full Contact Details:

Yvon Lambert Gallery
550 West 21st Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 242-3611
(212) 242-8208 FAX