Arne Quinze
Arne Quinze is a Belgian contemporary artist, painter and sculptor. His work involves everything from small drawings and paintings, medium-sized sculptures to massive installations. Quinze was born in Belgium in 1971 and currently lives and works in Sint-Martens-Latem, a town near the Belgian city of Ghent. His early career in the 1980s was as a graffiti artist. He always questioned the role of our cities and started his search for cities to become open air museums. His work quickly evolved from Street Art to Public Art with recurring themes as social interaction, urbanisation and diversity.
The gigantic wooden construction entitled Uchronia, which he and his team built in the Nevada desert (USA) for the 2006 Burning Man festival, emphasized his pursuit for culture and nature to coexist. This was followed by numerous sculptures and exhibitions that included both large installations and small paintings and sculptures. At the present time, many of his installations are considered to be landmarks that present a different dynamic for urban development: In Paris, Shanghai, Beirut, Washington DC, Brussels, Mumbai, Sao Paolo,… Quinze has been intervening in cities now for over 25 years, and many projects are still lined up to be finalised.
Arne Quinze was born in 1971 in Belgium.
In the eighties he began working as a graffiti artist but he never finished an official art education. Quinze creates large and small sculptures, drawings, paintings, and large-scale installations. Smaller works, sketches, and drawings are the basis and research for his large installations. Recurring fundamentals in his oeuvre are the use of wood and metal; electrical colors in fluorescent paint; and themes referring to social interaction, nature and urbanism.
What drives Quinze is the belief in the possible realization of an idealistic society where all individuals communicate and interact, aiming to bring people together and push them into a vigorous dialogue. His unconventional public installations have challenged perceptions in the city centers of Belgium (Cityscape, The Sequence), Germany (The Traveller), France (Camille, Rock Strangers), Lebanon (The Visitor), China (Red Beacon), Brazil (Matarazzo), the USA (Uchronia, Timegate, Whispers), among others. In his own words, "Cities like open-air museums – it sounds like an idealistic dream, but I am striving to realize this dream. Confronting a public surrounded by art every day. Art has a positive influence on people and their personal development: it broadens their horizons and renders them more tolerant towards differences in society."
In every culture Quinze comes across, he unravels physical processes, drawing inspiration for his oeuvre, and is fueled by overwhelming optimism. Every new creative breed captures his research and study on interaction, and urban movement expressing the continuously evolution of human beings and their surroundings. Besides building architectural sculptures, he creates complex art pieces and video installations inscribing his vision in society of how people see themselves and society. Works as Bidonvilles, Stilthouses, Chaos, My Home My House My Stilthouse, My Safe Garden, Natural Chaos and Natural Chaos Satellites have been shown on several exhibitions.
Quinze lives and works in Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium and Los Angeles, US.
SELECTED SOLO & GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
INSTALLATIONS
2017
2016
2015