Painting simplifies reality, whereas sculpture refrains from doing so. Space is an ever-present element.
— Peter Buggenhout
Peter Buggenhout (b. 1963, Dendermonde) studied painting and installation art at Sint Lucas in Ghent, where he first established himself as a painter and designer before shifting his focus entirely to sculpture in the early 1990s.
Turning away from the limitations of the painted surface, Buggenhout embraced a sculptural language rooted in the physical and temporal qualities of materials. Central to his practice is the transformation of “remnants”—objects and substances that have ceased being in any conventional sense—into autonomous sculptural bodies. As a result, Buggenhout's works deliberately resist a prescribed viewing direction: there is no front or back, only polydimensional forms in which all perspectives hold equal weight.
Working in long-term series defined by distinct material constellations, Buggenhout constructs expansive, gestural forms that embody emergence and decay. Discarded plastics, industrial debris, textiles, dust, and organic matter coalesce into objects that are at once monumental and abject, challenging normative frameworks of perception and meaning.
Buggenhout has presented major solo exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Reutlingen (2021), Neues Museum Nürnberg (2017), Palazzo De’ Toschi (2017), and M Museum Leuven (2015), and his first show with Konrad Fischer Galerie was in Düsseldorf (2009). His work has featured in significant international group exhibitions, including WIELS, Brussels (2020–21), Frieze Sculpture, London (2019), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017–19), Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2017), Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2016), and MoMA PS1, New York (2013–15). Permanent installations include The Blind Leading the Blind at MONA, Hobart, and Hollow Man (with Willem Boel) at the Migratie Museum Migration, Brussels.
His work is held in prominent public collections including S.M.A.K., Ghent; KIASMA, Helsinki; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Colección Jumex, Mexico City; the Rubell Family Collection, Miami; and the Margulies Collection, Miami. His most recent solo exhibition was at Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Wuppertal (2025).