Hedwig Brouckaert

Instagram: hedwig_brouckaert

Website: http://www.hedwigbrouckaert.net

Bio: Hedwig Brouckaert is a Belgian-American artist living and working in Long Island City (NY) and Ghent, Belgium. Her work has appeared in exhibitions throughout the US and internationally, including ‘Re/pro/ducing Complexity’ curated by Peter Lodermeyer with work by Jorinde Voigt and Nelleke Beltjens at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (BE) and the Städtische Galerie Villa Zanders (DE); exhibitions at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center (TH), VOLTA NY with Jan Dhaese Gallery, Pen+Brush (NY), Transmitter (NY), Kentler International Drawing Space (NY), Murray State University (KY), McGlothlin Center for the Arts at Emory & Henry College (VA), University of Ghent (BE), Pallazo Vendramin Costa (Venice IT), and Project:ARTspace (NY) . Brouckaert has received grants from the Flemish Government in Belgium, from Café Royal Cultural Foundation; and fellowships including AIM of the Bronx Museum, LMCC Governors Island Art Center Residency, NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, Rockefeller Foundation – Bellagio (IT), Liguria Study Center Bogliasco (IT), Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, Hafnarborg Museum of Iceland, Yaddo (NY), Anderson Ranch (CO), Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and FLACC (BE). Brouckaert’s work has been discussed in the Brooklyn Rail, the New York Times, Blackbook, ArtSpiel, Uncovered, Ante, the ArtCouch, and KunstHart (BE). She received an MFA from the University of California, Davis after completing a Masters in sculpture at the Sint-Lukas Hogeschool in Brussels, and a Postgraduate at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Belgium.

Statement: As a teenager, I fantasized about hijacking commercial billboards - erasing their distorted messages of desire and identity - by painting them over. As an artist, advertising and mass media imagery in the form of magazines have been a primary material in my drawings, sculpture and installation projects. Out of what was commercial, ubiquitous photo-based material, I create highly tactile abstract works. I play with the tension between the functional, representational starting point and the illegible, raw result of my extensive physical process. ‘Peel’ is a series of layered-paper collage on commercial ceramic tiles. I cut out imagery of models' skin from mainstream magazines and layer it over and over with glue and acrylic paint to create a bas relief. I then sand, cut, and carve with sharp tools to reveal the deeper layers beneath, uncovering strange patterns by breaking open the surface. When I moved to New York City, I fell in love with the multicultural aspect of this city. Commuting by subway, I grew to love the complex images that are created by filth and grime on the old tiled walls. Those tiled walls are omnipresent as the architectural skin of public corridors and subway tunnels. With the title ‘Peel’ I reflect on the process of peeling away the surface in order to re-examine our belief systems and habits as a society, and as an individual to peel away the constructed ego and the culturally conditioned mind, to arrive at a more embodied truth.