Nicolas Alquin
1958 (Brussels)
Artist's webSite
Artist's gallery
Born in 1958 in Brussels, lives and works in Bagneux. Against the current of contemporary conceptualism, Nicolas Alquin's hieratic sculptures (man-columns or birds) are imbued with the resonance of a past of classical statuary and primitive influences. In his constant questioning of being, the artist aims at interiority and flight in the sense of elevation from the material to the spiritual. He develops his artistic lexicon according to three main vectors: wood (in direct cut); beeswax cut and modeled in the mass (sometimes cast in bronze); and sepia or black ink (for brush washes). Taking back the precepts of post-minimal sculpture, he deploys a practice that reenacts, not without intensity, the history of art, bringing together both references to the margin and the great history of sculpture. In an incessant dialogue between the Judeo-Christian iconographic heritage and the influence of primitive sculptures (both African and Oriental) on contemporary Western art, Nicolas Alquin materializes through his works a reflection on the relationships between the visible and the unspeakable, the hand and the mind, or even the mastery and the random. Thus, he does not hesitate to appropriate so-called «traditional» techniques (the direct cutting of wood in the front line, the chiselling of bronze) to tint them with various influences and put them in perspective.
Artist's webSite
Artist's gallery
Born in 1958 in Brussels, lives and works in Bagneux. Against the current of contemporary conceptualism, Nicolas Alquin's hieratic sculptures (man-columns or birds) are imbued with the resonance of a past of classical statuary and primitive influences. In his constant questioning of being, the artist aims at interiority and flight in the sense of elevation from the material to the spiritual. He develops his artistic lexicon according to three main vectors: wood (in direct cut); beeswax cut and modeled in the mass (sometimes cast in bronze); and sepia or black ink (for brush washes). Taking back the precepts of post-minimal sculpture, he deploys a practice that reenacts, not without intensity, the history of art, bringing together both references to the margin and the great history of sculpture. In an incessant dialogue between the Judeo-Christian iconographic heritage and the influence of primitive sculptures (both African and Oriental) on contemporary Western art, Nicolas Alquin materializes through his works a reflection on the relationships between the visible and the unspeakable, the hand and the mind, or even the mastery and the random. Thus, he does not hesitate to appropriate so-called «traditional» techniques (the direct cutting of wood in the front line, the chiselling of bronze) to tint them with various influences and put them in perspective.
Artist's exhibitions
Elle et le chemin
26/11/2022 - 06/03/2023(Fontevraud) L’Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud
Des arbres en hiver
29/11/2016 - 28/02/2017(Chaumont-sur-Loire) Domaine régional de Chaumont sur Loire
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Nicolas Alquin – Bois et dérivés
16/02/2013 - 21/04/2013(Issoudun) Musée de l'Hospice Saint Roch
Publicité
pubabbonnemenrt
3e Biennale de sculpture d'Yerres - Inventer des mondes singuliers
16/09/2011 - 27/11/2011(Yerres) Maison Caillebotte
Plus d'expositions