Singer Nick Cave’s ceramic works will be on show at the Xavier Hufkens Gallery in Brussels in April 2024. The series of sculptures is called "The Devil - A Life (2020-22)" and depicts different phases in the life of the devil.
Nick Cave is best known as frontman of rock band "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds", but he is also a writer, actor and artist. Between 2020 and 2022 he worked on a collection of ceramic sculptures called "The Devil - A Life (2020-22)".
This collection of sculptures by Nick Cave was first shown at an exhibition in Finland last year, but in 2024, "The Devil - A Life (2020-22)" also comes to Belgium. From 5 April to 11 May, you can see the artworks at the Xavier Hufkens Gallery in Brussels.
The series consists of 17 ceramic sculptures, each representing a phase in the devil's life. You get to see the devil as a child, but also at his death.
The sculptures are a visual expression of Cave's complex relationship with the Christian faith. Religion also often returns as a theme in the music he makes.
For the style of his ceramics, Cave took inspiration from Victorian Staffordshire figures from the nineteenth century. Only the front and sides of these so-called "flatback" figurines were decorated. They were usually placed in a cupboard or on the chimney, so their backs were not visible.
The Australian singer has been interested in visual arts from a very young age and he even studied painting for a while in Melbourne. However, happily for his music fans he dropped out of those studies to launch his musical career.