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.