Belgian artist Nicolas Alquin has opened Heaven’s Door at Kamil Art Gallery, inviting viewers to explore the boundary between the material and the mystical through his monumental wood sculptures.
Known for his sculptural work with raw wood, Alquin is presenting a series of monumental pieces that feature distinctive golden openings at their centre, which he describes as symbolic thresholds leading to an unseen realm.
“Art is intuition…”
“I focus a lot on inner space. In this exhibition, my aim was to carve away so much of the material that almost nothing of the statue remains – leaving mostly space. And what is space? Space is our inner light,” Alquin explained to Monaco Life during the opening of the exhibition on Thursday 7th November.
The centrepiece is a human figure carved from a single piece of wood, with a human-shaped opening at its core framed by golden edges. This design, according to Alquin, invites viewers to contemplate the notion of crossing into an elsewhere – a place that suggests both mystery and connection. Alquin said that the interplay between the wood and the golden framing reflects his interest in linking the earthly and the immaterial. The gold edging, he explained, acts as a form of light, hinting at a sense of the sacred or the transcendent.
“What inspires me the most is life, as it is divine, it is universal, and it is sacred. But really, art is intuition,” said the artist.
The sculptor also discussed his approach to these works as an exploration of passage and transformation. He sees each gilded opening as a symbol of transition, a way to look beyond what is physically present. “The wood anchors us in the known, but these openings suggest there is something beyond it, a space where the material world and the spiritual may meet,” Alquin shared with Monaco Life.
Connecting to the natural world
Alquin’s work is deeply rooted in his background; born in Brussels in 1958 to a family of artists, he trained in art restoration and has dedicated much of his career to creating large-scale sculptures that focus on texture, form, and symbolism.
His choice of wood as a primary medium connects his art to the natural world, while the addition of gold serves as a subtle reminder of something beyond the physical. In Heaven’s Door, he examines the duality of inside and outside, matter and light, questioning where one ends and the other begins.
“I’m proud to bring Heaven’s Door to Kamil Art Gallery,” said Alquin. “It’s an honour to exhibit in a space that values exploration and reflection.”
Heaven’s Door will be on display at Kamil Art Gallery until the 8th December.
See more of the exhibition in our video reel below…
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Photo credit: Niki Borisova, Monaco Life