SOFACQ Gallery
Peter Rogiers (Antwerp, 1967) is a Flemish sculptor and installation maker.
The artists Francis Bacon and Franz West are a big inspiration for him. In his work he refers to the iconography of Pablo Picasso. The influence of comics, underground culture such as B-movies or cult comics is also noticeable. His preference for dance with the choreography of William Forsythe is reflected in his visual work. He increases the restlessness of a dancing body in his sculptural work.
The artist was discovered in the early 1990s by the Antwerp gallery owner Annette de Keyser. He then became known in the contemporary art world with the image Degas dancer. That image has since been purchased for the collection of the Flemish Community. The statue represents an absurd variation on the well-known Degas icon, but in polyester and animal skin.
Due to the choice of materials, but also the distortions, the image radiates an at the same time historical and non-historicizing atmosphere. Shortly afterwards, the art world hailed Rogiers as a 'new sculptor', a man who makes tangible, three-dimensional images again. No more conceptual conditions, but again an image made with materials and referring to a recognizable representation, the human body.
The artist himself stated in this regard: "I don't think you can work as an artist in function of art history. That is far too cerebral. I always want to surprise myself again. I look for subjectivity, the indefinable".
Rogiers Peter, Yours.
Rogiers Peter, Swamp thing with Picasso head, 2015.
Mixed media, wood and plexi, 185 x 30 x 30 cm.
Rogiers Peter, The Strike, 2016.
Black patinated bronze, 319 x 136 x 195 cm.