Wim Delvoye BEL, b. 1965
Overview
"I have always tried to make art that could be understood by everybody, and I’m very happy that people who wouldn’t go to a museum know the work."
Wim Delvoye appropriates and diverts art-historical styles and motifs to sublimate trivial yet unconventional objects, and sometimes even living subjects. His eclectic and subversive practice spans a wide range of media, including drawing, sculpture, and installation; he is perhaps best known for naturalizing tattooed pigs in China, or mechanically replicating the digestive system to produce real feces within exhibition spaces. Constantly oscillating between antagonistic realms, such as the sacred and the profane or the local and the global, he sarcastically confronts the various myths that feed our contemporary society, from religion to science and capitalism, via unexpected hybridizations. Whether twisting Rorschach inkblots into sleek bronze idols or cement trucks into laser-cut-steel neo-Gothic cathedrals, he combines expert craftsmanship with high technology. Delvoye’s ever-shifting, conceptual-adjacent aesthetics further questions the commodification of art by strategically and provocatively eluding any attempt at definitive categorization.
Born in Belgium in 1965, Wim Delvoye currently lives and works in Brighton, UK. The artist gained international recognition through his participation in major exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1990 and 1999, Documenta IX in 1992, and particularly, through his presentation of “Cloaca” at the New Museum, New York in 2002. Other important solo exhibitions have been held at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy (2009); Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (MAMAC), Nice, France (2010); Musée Rodin, Paris, France (2010); Palais des Beaux-Arts (BOZAR), Brussels, Belgium (2010-2011); the Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart Tasmania, Australia (2012); and the Musée du Louvre (2012). Recent solo exhibitions have been held at the Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan (2015); Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (2016); MUDAM, Luxembourg (2016-17); DHC/ART Foundation pour l’art contemporain, Montreal (2016-17); and the Tinguely Museum, Basel (2017-18). Recently, Delvoye was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels (2019(. His work is in important collections worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fondation Cartier, Paris; Museum Kunst-Palast, Düsseldorf; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Ghent; and the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
Works
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Wim DelvoyeUntitled (Flotation Tyre), 2020handcarved flotation tyre104 x 58 x 104 cm
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Wim DelvoyeGloria Victis Rorschach, 2012patinated bronze75 x 36 x 45 cm
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Wim DelvoyeConcrete Mixer (scale model), 2020laser cut stainless steel86 x 96 x 53 cm
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Wim DelvoyeUntitled (car tyre 2), 2010handcarved car tyre71 x 14 x 71 cm
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Wim DelvoyeTrinity Rorschach, 2010nickeled bronze33 x 32 x 30 cm
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Wim DelvoyeDeux Bacchantes CCW, 2010electrolytic nickeled bronze131 x 50 x 58 cm
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Wim DelvoyeDaphnis e Chloe CCW, 2010patinated bronze56 x 30 x 30 cm
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Wim DelvoyeDeux Bacchantes CW, 2010electrolytic nickeled bronze131 x 55 x 57 cm
Exhibitions
News
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Wim Delvoye "L'ordre de Choses - Carte Blanche à Wim Delvoye"
Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland January 26, 2024For its fourth XL exhibition, the Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève (MAH) invited Wim Delvoye (1965) to investigate the museum’s connection to its collections...Read more -
Wim Delvoye group show "Lacan, the exhibition. When art meets psychoanalysis"
Centre Pompidou-Metz, Paris, France December 30, 2023The ideas of Jacques Lacan are, alongside the work of Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze, essential for understanding our modernity. While...Read more -
Wim Delvoye "Labour of Love"
Noordbrabants Museum, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands October 29, 2022Fun, provocative, and rebellious: these words perfectly describe the artworks by Belgian artist, Wim Delvoye. His work reflects his extraordinary skill, but it is also...Read more -
Interview with Belgian artist Wim Delvoye
Video interview I University of Warwick, UK September 6, 2022 Read more -
Wim Delvoye
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussel, Belgium March 22, 2019Conceived in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium offers an impressive panorama of his work...Read more -
Wim Delvoye
Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, South Korea February 27, 2018 Read more -
Wim Delvoye
Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland June 14, 2017Museum Tinguely is to host in 2017 Switzerland’s first major retrospective of Belgian artist Wim Delvoye. Since the late 1980s, Delvoye has been known for...Read more -
Wim Delvoye - Permanent installation
Nukutepipi, French Polynesia January 13, 2017Pergola, 2017 Laser-cut Corten steel 1280 x 865 x 1040 cm Permanent installation, 2017, Nukutepipi (French Polynesia)Read more -
Wim Delvoye
PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada November 30, 2016Since the late 1980s, Belgian artist Wim Delvoye has been challenging the art world status quo through a multidisciplinary practice that includes sculpture, drawing, photography,...Read more -
Wim Delvoye
MUDAM, The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg, Luxembourg July 2, 2016 Read more -
Wim Delvoye
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran March 7, 2016MORE INFO HERE !Read more -
Wim Delvoye
Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaigian April 13, 2015The opening ceremony of the solo exhibition by the famous Belgian artist and a well-known face of modern art Wim Delvoye is to take place...Read more -
Wim Delvoye "Mimicry"
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art, Moscow, Russia July 25, 2014MORE INFO HERE !Read more -
Wim Delvoye
Musée du Louvre, Paris, France May 31, 2012Curated by Marie Laure BernadacRead more -
Wim Delvoye group show "Corps et décors"
Musée Rodin, Paris, France April 16, 2010Curators: Dominique Viéville, Musée Rodin Director François Blanchetière MORE INFO HERE !Read more