Pieter VANDEN DAELE

1971

Pieter Vanden Daele i(Oudenaarde, 1971) grew up among the lakes of the river Scheldt, an ideal environment for fishermen. When his friends went sport fishing, Pieter took painting classes at the Oudenaarde academy. At an early age he became fascinated by the underwater world and fauna. In 2000 he worked at a bronze foundry in Oudenaarde, where he learned to make molds and wax models, to cast bronze and to polish and to patinate. In 2003, all his passions came together and he started casting his own bronze creations, mainly carp.

The fish he makes have a special texture where the scaly skin is translated into bronze. Pieter VandenDaele has developed a whole technique of his own for this purpose. The original sculpture is constructed from organic material such as leaves, wood, leather, wax and many other materials. This results in sculptures with a rough and complex surface that perfectly reproduces the real skin of fish. But it’s not just the lifelikeness that stands out. The refined patinas of his sculptures also bring Pieter Vanden Daele’s fish to life, as it were.

His fish are alive, captured for eternity. Just as nature traps prehistoric fish in fossils. Not only the vibrancy of the fish in his sculptures, make him a great artist, also the beautiful patina he uses for his artworks.