“It has always fascinated me why, how and in what materials things were made, and what these things communicated by the way they were constructed… Materials and making are, in many aspects, my core interest: as a way to realize things, as a process in itself, and as a meaningful subject matter.”

The Belgian artist David Huycke is interested in objects that hover between sculpture and domestic objects, without being either one of them. It is in this intersection between art, craft and design where his work can be situated. His objects often reveal a mix of poetry, sensuality, mathematics, craftsmanship, science, technique and a critical attitude towards the field he’s mostly working in: metalwork.

In consequence of his love-hate relationship with ornamentation, his interest in processes and material qualities and his fascination for the ‘impossible’ he questioned in his last project The Metamorphic Ornament: Re-Thinking Granulation (2005-2010) the technique of granulation from an artistic perspective, in search of its contemporary relevance. For more information see davidhuycke.posterous.com/pages/research.

As a continuation on his Re-Thinking Granulation-project David Huycke is currently investigating the possibilities of representation and imitation in sculptural silverwork. The subject of this research is often found in nature, where the mechanisms, strategies, (micro)structures, and ‘why things look the way they are?” are his main interests, rather than the image of nature itself.

David Huycke was born in 1967 in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium. He studied jewellery-design and silversmithing at Sint-Lucas University College in Antwerp, Belgium, where he graduated in 1989. Since 1993 he works as an independent artist. Currently he is professor at the MAD-faculty and researcher at MAD-research, Hasselt/Genk, Belgium. In 2010 he acquired his PhD in Arts with his project The Metamorphic Ornament: Re-Thinking Granulation.

David Huycke, 1967, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.


Educaton:
2005-2010 PhD in Arts, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Louvain
1985-1989 Sint-Lucas University College, Antwerp 

Permanent Collections: 
Aberdeen Museum & Art Gallery, Aberdeen | Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Basel | Contemporary Arts Society, London | Danish Museum of Decorative Arts, Copenhagen | Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus, Hanau | Design museum Gent, Ghent | Galerie Sofie Lachaert, Tielrode | Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis | International Museum of Contemporary Applied Arts, Turin | Marzee Collection, Nijmegen | Musée Mandet, Riom | Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris | Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe, Hamburg | National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg | Royal College of Art, London | Silver Museum Sterckshof, Antwerp 

Awards:
2007 Bavarian State Prize for Contemporary Crafts, Gold Medal, IHM, Munich
1998 European Prize for Contemporary Art- and Design-led Crafts, younger than 35 years, WCC-Europe, Vienna
1994 VIZO-Award “Henry Van De Velde”, Young Talent prize, Brussels | VIZO-Award “Henry Van De Velde”, Prize of the Public, Brussels
1992 Prize of the Talentbörse Handwerk, Metal, IHM, Munich
1990 Province of East-Flanders’ Provincial Prize for Applied Arts, Ghent

Solo Exhibitions (since 2000):
2011 Galerie Sofie Lachaert, Tielrode
2010 Z33, Hasselt
2007 Galerie Sofie Lachaert, Tielrode | Waas Zilver, SASK, Stedelijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten, Sint-Niklaas | Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2006 Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen | Carlin Gallery, Paris | Gallery Orfèo, Luxembourg
2005 Musée Départemental du Compagnonnage, Romanèche-Thorins
2004 The Danish Museum of Decorative Arts, Copenhagen
2003 Korpus, Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg | Korpus, Carlin Gallery, Paris | Korpus, Design Museum, Ghent
2002 Galerie Sofie Lachaert, Tielrode | Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen
2001 Carlin Gallery, Paris
2000 Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen

Teaching:
Since 2001 Professor MAD-faculty, Hasselt | Researcher MAD-research, Hasselt/Genk 

Visiting Lecturer: 
2008 KHIO, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Oslo | HDK, School of Design and Crafts at Göteborg University, Göteborg
2007 RISD, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2005 Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm | ESAD, Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Porto
2004 RISD, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI | Sint-Lucas University College, Antwerp
2001 RCA, Royal College of Art, London