Hedwig Brouckaert //
Peel (NY III)
On View: September 12 – October 31, 2024
Hedwig Brouckaert works with mainstream magazines, referencing its distorted messages of desire and identity, cutting out imagery of skin and layering it on reclaimed ceramic tiles. Influenced by her daily subway commute, she sees ceramic tiles as the architectural skin of NYC. With sharp knives she carves into the paper mass, uncovering strange patterns and breaking open boundaries. Brouckaert reflects on the process of peeling away the surface in order to examine our belief-systems as a society, and as an individual to peel away the ego and the culturally conditioned mind.
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), and Pallazo Vendramin Costa (Venice IT), 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.