Nick Ervinck: Recent Works

This month ArtSmacked is showcasing the work of Belgian artist Nick Ervinck. The online show features a selection of works followed by the artist’s statement & short biography.

Nick Ervinck - Recent Works

Artist’s Statement

Nick Ervinck’s work explores the borders between various mediums including sculpture and architecture in an attempt to fragment the mental image and to question the use and the perception of constructive elements such as material, proportions, space, colour and volume.

He endeavours to trigger interaction between virtual constructions and hand-made sculptures with a view to encourage the observer to look afresh at the ‘world’. To this end he uses a range of mediums: digital prints, videos, drawings but first and foremost, sculptural forms made from painted plaster, polyester and wood, which are presented in a very precise manner within a given ‘space’.

The animations and digital prints not only provide a glimpse of a digital virtual world, but also a passage to ‘a different reality’. Inside Ervincks artificial world things work very differently from any traditional understandings of logic. Polymorphic, synthetic forms are found in the ‘seemingly’ authentic rooms, racks and platforms and are brought to life as mutated molecules by means of an artistic computer simulation. In Ervinck’s conception wood is flexible, objects appear from the ground up, rooms are multi-directional movable – everything is in disorder corresponding to common sense.

The world in which the artist operates is a digitally fictionalized one, constructed and deconstructed by an omniscient creator and without any limitations. Walls are no longer walls and gravity seems non-existing. He is playing with sculptural forms. And monumental buildings are being lifted in a fraction of a second and injected with new life. Houses turn into sculptures and are being developed in space. It is a systematic game using images, materials and space and a balancing act between medium, objective and meticulous calculation brought about by inspired improvisation.

Biography

The Belgian visual artist Nick Ervinck (Roeselare, 1981) creates huge installations, sculptures, prints, workdrawings and animated films. His work is characterized by the creation of a constantly growing archive of numerous forms and objects. Basically he is making sculptures of different complexity. By creating an immense archive, an interesting interaction between the virtual constructions and the handmade sculptures is being achieved. Digital images continuously contaminate the 3D-objects, but also the other way around. He has for several years been involved in many individual projects and group shows.

In 2005 he received the Godecharle prize for Sculpture and in 2006 the Mais prize of the City Brussel and the prize for visual art of West Flanders. Recently he showed work at SMAK Ghent, Koraalberg Antwerp, Brakke Grond Amsterdam, 80 WSE Gallery New York, Show off Paris, BE-part Waregem, Telic Los Angelos, studio Hermann Wagner Berlin, MAMA Rotterdam and Year07 Projects London