Peter Rogiers
05 Sep - 25 Oct 2008
Whispers, 2008
Aluminium, outdoor-wood
85 x 100 x 130 cm
Courtesy: Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin
Aluminium, outdoor-wood
85 x 100 x 130 cm
Courtesy: Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin
White Trash II, 2008
Epoxy, polyester, polyurethane varnish, polyurethane foam, steel, paint
220 x 190 x 120 cm
Epoxy, polyester, polyurethane varnish, polyurethane foam, steel, paint
220 x 190 x 120 cm
The expressive sculptures of Peter Rogiers, vacillating continually between abstraction and figuration, distinguish themselves particularly through their colossal spatial presence. Their precise and perfectly balanced masses have an inherent dynamism that seeks to usurp the surrounding space.
The sources of Rogiers’ creation are the catalogue depictions of classical and modern sculpture along with films and comics as well as his own photos. The Belgian critic Luk Lambrecht writes: “The photos divest the figure of mass and gravity and automatically abridge depth and perspective. He [Rogiers] models his sculptures on the basis of this two-dimensional pictorial information using the most diverse materials and techniques” and creates new spatial configurations that play with the alienation of the found and seek the possibility of a contemporary sculpture.
In this work Rogiers follows the collage principles of fragmentation and recombination – yet while working in not just found material but above all parts of his own sculptures. Once found, motifs can re-emerge again and again in later works. This method expresses the artist’s search for a sculptural technique by which the genesis of one sculpture already produces the germ of the next one. Rogiers hopes to find a self-regenerative process that continually drives itself to bring forth the ideal and complete shape. And yet Rogiers does not believe in any ideal human form: rather, for him the human is “a manipulable and defenceless object” cramped with fear for its self-preservation (Luk Lambrecht). In his idiosyncratic and uniquely expressive pictorial language, bordering on mannerism and balanced between high culture and subculture, Rogiers’ figurative work is also a commentary on the state of humanity in our civilizational present.
Peter Rogiers, born in 1967 in Antwerp, lives and works near Leuven in Belgium. He has recently had solo exhibitions at De Garage in Mechelen in Belgium (spring 2008), at Roberts & Tilton in Los Angeles and at Galerie Thomas Schulte (2007) as well as in the Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp. The same year saw Rogiers’ take part in the group exhibition “Black is Black” in the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent. His works are found in numerous museums and private collections.
The sources of Rogiers’ creation are the catalogue depictions of classical and modern sculpture along with films and comics as well as his own photos. The Belgian critic Luk Lambrecht writes: “The photos divest the figure of mass and gravity and automatically abridge depth and perspective. He [Rogiers] models his sculptures on the basis of this two-dimensional pictorial information using the most diverse materials and techniques” and creates new spatial configurations that play with the alienation of the found and seek the possibility of a contemporary sculpture.
In this work Rogiers follows the collage principles of fragmentation and recombination – yet while working in not just found material but above all parts of his own sculptures. Once found, motifs can re-emerge again and again in later works. This method expresses the artist’s search for a sculptural technique by which the genesis of one sculpture already produces the germ of the next one. Rogiers hopes to find a self-regenerative process that continually drives itself to bring forth the ideal and complete shape. And yet Rogiers does not believe in any ideal human form: rather, for him the human is “a manipulable and defenceless object” cramped with fear for its self-preservation (Luk Lambrecht). In his idiosyncratic and uniquely expressive pictorial language, bordering on mannerism and balanced between high culture and subculture, Rogiers’ figurative work is also a commentary on the state of humanity in our civilizational present.
Peter Rogiers, born in 1967 in Antwerp, lives and works near Leuven in Belgium. He has recently had solo exhibitions at De Garage in Mechelen in Belgium (spring 2008), at Roberts & Tilton in Los Angeles and at Galerie Thomas Schulte (2007) as well as in the Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp. The same year saw Rogiers’ take part in the group exhibition “Black is Black” in the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent. His works are found in numerous museums and private collections.