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Lupine sculpture of Arne Quinze at the Venice Biennale Arte

Serra dei Giardini, Venice, Italy

Arne Quinze sculpture at Venice during the 59th International Biennale Arte

During the 59th International BIENNALE ARTE from 23 April to 27 November 2022, curated by Cecilia Alemani, the artist Arne Quinze has been selected by the city of Venice to exhibit one of his recognizable Lupine sculptures at the entrance of the Biennale Giardini in the botanical garden of Serra dei Giardini.


Visitors to this BIENNALE ARTE will discover along the path Quinze’s Lupine Sculpture, an artwork that will invite them to reflect on the wonderful mechanisms of nature and its transience. Here, Arne Quinze’s work seems to have gushed out of the earth in a powerful message from an artist commanding attention for the beauty of nature. This piece symbolizes the first leap by which unbridled nature reclaims the city.

Deeply inspired by Impressionists such as Claude Monet, Édouard Manet & Camille Pissarro, Arne Quinze steps at a young age in the open air to explore both the rural and  the urban. It strikes him that the city has lost its connection with nature and has become very mineral, almost soulless. He opposes this finding and begins in the mid-1980s with the creation of colorful murals as an impetus to restore the city's lost diversity. These actions make him realize that he can incite people into a dialogue about the current state of their public spaces. Initiating his artistic goal to embrace the grandeur of the botanical realm as a guide to reinstalling organic landscapes in urban society.  


The ecosystem that Arne Quinze set up around his home a few years ago has become his laboratory for his paintings and sculptures. The experimental space is characterized by a huge variety of plant species and a wide range of colours. The artist and gardener effortlessly disappears and escapes in this secret garden. There, he finds shelter from the roaring cacophony of everyday traffic and today’s grey and monotonous urban existence. By creating and growing this quintessentially balanced and natural, Quinze expresses his aversion for greyness and monoculture as he strives to inject fragments of his radiant laboratory into our cities, where his sculptures will hopefully serve as catalysts for a vivid diversity.

Arne Quinze’s afflatus is not only reduced to the sporadic spurts and bursts of the explosion of nature’s fresh greenery in spring. The awareness that plants wither as winter approaches before eventually – partially – dying, constantly hovers over the garden. The decaying phase provides a sense of slight nostalgia for days gone by (or is it an optimistic prospect of the future?) for days when exploding colours still reigned over the garden. Life and decay – the two sides of the coin of nature – act as an ongoing inspiration for the work of Quinze who recently created pieces focussed on transient matter as a breeding ground for new life. In Japanese, the acceptance of this transience is known as "Mono No Aware" and is crucial in Arne Quinze's recent research on nature. Although this artwork might seem like a melancholic snapshot at first sight, it is everything but. With this sculpture, Arne Quinze celebrates life and nature by embracing the beauty and strength in the decay.


Lupine Sculpture by Arne Quinze on view at Serra dei Giardini (Viale Giuseppe Garibaldi 1254, Venice) from April 23 until November 27. Curated by Marco Scurati. 

“Rarely have our public spaces been quite so important for our mental and physical well-being, and this exhibition shines a light on sculpture in the open air, creating a place of inspiration and enjoyment"

— Clare Lilley, curator and Director of Programme, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

“My Lupine Sculptures are the direct result of the research I did on Mono No Aware over these past months and years. This artwork embodies the power of nature right after its prime highlight. The late peak of summer, when the energy of vigorous growth comes to a climax before relapsing itself towards transience."

— Arne Quinze

Centaurea, a Lupine Sculpture by Arne Quinze on view at Serra dei Giardini from April 23 until November 27.

Lupine Sculpture by Arne Quinze on view at Serra dei Giardini from April 23 until November 27. Curated by Marco Scurati.

Lupine sculpture by Arne Quinze at Serra dei Giardini

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