Published as commentary on new acquisitions of the FRAC Grand Large collection, Dunkerque, 2026.
Sophie Nys studied visual arts at Sint-Lukas in Ghent and completed a postgraduate program at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. Selected Exhibitions include Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels (2023), La Salle de Bains, Lyon (2021) and CRAC Alsace, Altkirch (2015).
Drawing on everyday scenes, landscapes, and furnishings as points of departure, Nys investigates local and often vernacular histories. The artist engages less with specific but rather with archetypal forms that might have been handed over from generation to generation. They could take the shape of sculptures and installations, or appear as distributed images in photography, films, and frequently published zines by the artist.
In 2016, Nys developed a series of furniture objects for Maniera, a brand commissioning works at the intersection of architecture, design, and art. Titled Onkelhaft, the unlimited edition points to a familiarity that can be both reassuring and threatening. One of the works, Tafel/Stoel (Wolo), initially presents itself as a simple dining table, yet can be easily transformed into a chair. Much like an uncle figure—performed as a close relation despite emotional distance—the object harbors an uncanny potential. When the circular tabletop is tilted to function as a high backrest, the throne-like posture is suggesting authority.
Produced from untreated pine wood and supported by a cubic structure, the work recalls the austere simplicity of Shaker furniture. The designs and inventions of this Protestant community in the early United States are now icons of modern design history, even as Shakers rejected central values of early nineteenth-century modernity, particularly patriarchy and individual wealth accumulation. By reconnecting often unconscious links between image, material, and language, Nys probes the social inheritance of form and the structural power it continues to exert.
Work
Tafel/Stoel (Table / Chair), (Wolo), 2016
Part of the unlimited edition series Onkelhaft (Avuncular)
Yellow Pine
Dim. H 75 x L 111 x W 111 cm / H 151 x L 111 x W 51 cm
Selected Bibliography
Snauwaert, Dirk et al. (ed.), Risquons-Tout : Contemporary Artists Venture into Risk, Unpredictability, and Transgression. Brussels: Mercatorfonds, 2020
Not to be fed, but to be famous, Ghent: Posture Editions, 2017
Dieter Roelstraete (ed.), The Way of the Shovel: On the Archeological Imaginary in Art, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013