Kris Demuelenaere

ARTIST STATEMENT

Every sculpture is a new adventure in exploring the wonderful material of natural stone and letting it reveal piece by piece the hidden sculpture inside.

The essence of my work is a search for the exciting combination of mass and tension, spontaneous curves and cutting edges, a gameplay of light and shadow, abstraction and simplicity ... which trigger our emotions and encourage us to touch, to admire and to dream ...

ABOUT ME

Artist Sculptor

Born and living in Brugge, Belgium

I create abstract sculptures with an organic touch.

I am fascinated by pure natural stone. It is timeless, authentic and it is kind of mysterious.

With my work I want to design sculptures we like to touch, that can surprise us from each side and where light and shadow make it even more precious.

Sculptors like Jean Arp, Constantin Brancusi, Barbara Hepworth, Jorge Oteiza ignite my inspiration.

GET IN TOUCH

Artist Sculptor

My sculptor masters

Karel Van Roy (Belgium, Beernem)

Pierre Van Herreweghe (Belgium, Brugge)

Franck Poupel (France, Eygalières)

Beny De Backer (Belgium, Brugge)

EDUCATION

I am very grateful that I got to learn to sculpt from very skilled sculptors. They guided and trained me to discover my very own personal sculpture language.

MY STORY

Creating has always been my passion. Even as a child, I was already hammering away, trying to build and repair things. Working with wood was my favourite creative outlet back then.

After college I had to make a difficult choice … I was thinking of studying Product design or attending a business school. Since I was predestined to take over the family business, the artistic direction wasn’t really an option out of which I could choose. After successfully graduating as a Master in Economics, I had a flourishing business career. But over the years the need to balance this professional life with an artistic outlet came more and more to the surface.

In 2003 I started a painting course at ‘Huis de Meester’. A course that I have followed for many years and through which Nathalie de Meester taught me all the painting techniques. First through painting still lives and using the paint brush. Later by using a palette knife. This eventually led to making abstract paintings using thick layers of oil paint and giving the paintings a sculptural effect.

The predilection for abstract organic forms and lines I put in paintings got a new dimension when I started to sculpt. I felt a need to bring a kind of tangibility to my work.

From the beginning it was clear to me that I wanted to work in natural stone. It is such a precious and timeless product and each type of stone has its own characteristic of layers or veins which gives it already an artistic value. Discovering what history is inside the stone and making it visible gives me great satisfaction.

Every sculpture is a new adventure in exploring this natural material and reveal piece by piece the hidden sculpture inside and its wonderful patterns.

When I create a model for a sculpture, I do not have a predefined idea in my mind. I start modelling and my creations take form spontaneously and intuitively.

It is each time a search for the exciting combination of mass and tension, fluid curves and cutting edges, a gameplay of light and shadow, abstraction and simplicity. My purpose is to create unique sculptures making use of authentic and yet so rich natural materials. With my sculptures I do not intend to guide the spectator, but leave the interpretation open … Using a form language which triggers our emotions, encourages us to touch, to admire, to dream and to ignite our fantasy.

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