Peter Depelchin (b. Ostend, 1985) grew up on the Belgian coast. He spent many years in Italy (Rome) and the United States (New York City), and now lives in Brussels. His work reflects these experiences, and his career is characterized by an intense alternation between work, research, residencies, and exhibitions.

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He works in various media, including printmaking, video art, and installation, but drawing remains at the core of his artistic process. His large pencil drawings on mounted sheets of paper formally reference the siparium, a painted curtain stretched across the backdrop of a Roman theater. These monumental works evoke mystical cults and ancient rites that seem to take place in a long-lost past. Through these works, the artist sheds new light on Greek tragedy and Dionysian mysteries in the context of contemporary scientific discoveries and cosmological imagery. The juxtaposition of these seemingly anachronistic elements evokes a sense of timelessness. In Peter's work, astrophysical elements, thorough use of pattern, and eclectic approaches to depicting space provide more abstract imagery. This imagery is stimulated by his archetypal, allegorical, and theatrical approach to iconography and historical imagery. Large pencil drawings are created alongside ink drawings, which are often used to finalize artistic projects, while mixed media on paper encourages a more instinctive approach. However, Peter creates countless layers of meaning through his tiny drawings and studies. Additionally, Depelchin's use of friends and family as models in his drawings directly illustrates that his art is at the crossroads of the past and the future. This encourages viewers to dream, wonder, personify, and question.​

 

Peter's artistic cosmogony involves the organic processing of artworks, which allows him to reconsider leitmotifs and stimulate auto-reference and reflection. The rhythm of these motifs inspires him to create a new, universal artistic language that correlates with the contemporary world. To this end, he decontextualizes and recontextualizes formal aesthetic characteristics such as perspective and pattern. He also reinterprets art-historically embedded allegory and iconography and combines mythology and literature with astrophysical discoveries and contemporary portraiture to create an unexpected and inseparable union.  ​

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Peter Depelchin currently lives and works in Brussels. He has been active in the national and international art scenes, undertaking residencies in the Netherlands (Stichting IK, Vlissingen, 2008–2009), Italy (Accademia Belgica, Rome, 2014–2015), the United States (Residency Unlimited, New York, 2015–2016), and Belgium (TAMAT, Tournai, 2022). These residencies have led to exhibitions in the Netherlands (Neugebau, Pieter Janszoon Saenredam Project, Gegoten Lood), Rome (MAXXI), and New York (Incube Arts, Offspace, Arts on Site, Outside in, and Brilliant Champions Gallery). He has also been invited to exhibit in Brussels (Kasteel van Gaasbeek and La Vallée) and London (Young Masters). He was also honored as the laureate of several national art prizes, including Input-Output (Bruges, 2007), the Grote Prijs Ernest Albert voor Tekenkunst (Mechelen, 2016), and most recently, the Prix Elisabeth Burdot (Brussels, 2022). In 2021, Husk Gallery published the artist’s monograph Peter Depelchin 2014–2021. In 2023, Depelchin's drawings and mixed media artwork were exhibited for "Hommage à Pan," his major solo show at the Musée Félicien Rops and Château Thozée in Namur, Belgium. The exhibition was accompanied by an eponymous catalog. From 2023 to 2026, Depelchin was active in the USA and Europe. He exhibited at Governor's Island (Masks, RU-Koda House, 2023), LIC-A the Factory (Queens), and Sarah Crown Gallery (The Darkest Hour), alternating with shows in Belgium and France, including Husk Gallery, TAMAT's group show "Abstract," Kunsthuis Harelbeke's "Betekendt," and the Pareidolie Drawing Fair. Depelchin’s work has now been acquired by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels, Mu.Zee in Ostend, TAMAT in Tournai, the Center for Printmaking in La Louvière, and the Jenisch Museum in Vevey (CH). Depelchin is planning two major museum shows for the next few years: a solo show combining ethnic and traditional masks with his most recent series at the International Museum of Masks and Carnival in Binche in 2028, and a solo show at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Belgium in Brussels in 2029.