Pieter Obels
b. 1968 in Kruisland, Netherlands

In spite of the fact that steel is generally considered as rough and austere, Pieter Obels' sculptures seem to be controverting the intrinsic possibilities of the material.  Pieter Obels works with Corten steel, yet what his works convey above all is light and grace as he bends the steel into extraordinarily delicate and winding shapes.  It is almost as if we were watching the yin and yang of the same material.

 

Through a clever interplay of rigidity and dynamism, Obels work occupies a space deftly lingering between a sense of weight and weightlessness. His sculptures completely confound our perceptions of how a steel sculpture should look like and behave. The bends in the work appear to defy what the material can be persuaded to do.

 

Obels’s work has become known internationally, with sculptures exhibited in :

The Solo Project at Basel Art Fair, Switzerland 2014 - 2015, 

The Swiss Triennial Festival of Sculpture 2015

The Schlosspark in Koln-Stammhein, Germany 2013 and 

The Gunzburg Sculpture Park, Germany 2013