BIOGRAPHY
It was very obvious that Linde Ergo would end up in plastic arts, for artistry was deeply nestled in her genes. The family tradition was undeniably characterized by a strong link with art and culture, so the road to an artist's life was open to her. Linde studied sculpture at the Academy in Uccle and obtained a higher degree at the Academy for Fine Arts in Ghent.
In 1992 she moved to New York where she lived for 7 years and studied at the Sculpture Centre. During this training, her working procedures matured and she learned to control the raw material she was working with. No wonder she had her first exhibition in Manhattan. The last few years, she is living and working in Belgium, at De Haan, a coastal village.
Her sculptures are universal and speak of human emotions that lie deeply hidden inside us. Her figures are inspiring and ask for silence. It is up to the art lover to guess at the hidden 'feeling' in her creations and which, consciously or not, is urging the spectator to incorporate the 'mystery' in 'his' world.
The live model is for Linde an inexhaustible source of inspiration and an invitation to create. It is with total abandon and an unlikely subtlety that she is moulding her clay into delicate, frail or passionate figures. Once they radiate their typical, sensitive charisma they can be immortalized in bronze. She is using the same spontaneous and confident approach of her predecessors such as Camille Claudel, Auguste Rodin, Aristide Maillol and her fellow countryman Georges Grard.
Although Linde Ergo's sculptures are innovating and contemporary, they are rooted in classical sculpture. Linde knows how to interpret an age-old tradition into today's emotional world. Her unerring feel of pose and contour is directly related to her personal expression. She is actually telling us something about people and that simple story is appealing and captivating.
Albert Haelemeersch
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Sculptures as witnesses of a better world
Born into a family of artists for whom art was the only true refuge, Linde Ergo's future was set in stone, so to speak. Nevertheless, she chose her own path. After completing her studies, she went to the Sculpture Center in New York where she worked for eight years and further refined her technique. Her stay abroad was more than just artistic enrichment and a key moment in her development as a person. In New York, she realized that art was the only sensible way for her to live a fulfilling life, the thing she liked doing most, and something she was good at.
The silence surrounding her house is an ideal breeding ground for her work. It gives her many ideas a chance to mature, and it is this incessant stream of thoughts that she captures in her sketchbooks. Finding a way to realize them all in one lifetime is one of her main aspirations. She has the same typical enthusiasm and insatiable hunger as many of her artistic role models, such as Auguste Rodin, Alberto Giacometti, and Camille Claudel.
She gets a sense of satisfaction from the small maquettes she makes in preparation for her work. Drawing alone is not enough. It is only once the statuettes are cast in bronze that they exist. This brings her back to the early days of her artistic practice. To very small sculptures she was already making as a ten-year-old child, They are virtually unscathed and just as delicate as her current work. Her talent, her finesse, and her skilled hands, which have an impeccable talent for feeling the human body, were already very obvious by then.
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Could she survive without art? Her response to this is a resounding "no". It is a way for her to transform the scars she gets in life into something beautiful. No matter how serene her work looks, it always contains a certain melancholy. Making sculptures is comforting, it is an ointment for the mental scrapes we all accumulate over time. In her work, art enthusiasts find a counterweight. to the harshness they experience in their day-to-day existence.
Linde Ergo succeeds in perceiving beauty in unexpected places, seeing perfection in imperfection. She likes presenting her work in a stylish gallery equally as much as she does in a historic building with peeling wallpaper.
Even her unfinished sculptures are displayed prominently in her studio.
She has already immortalized her parents' weathered hands in bronze several times. The piece is called "Love stories", and the fingers are riveted together as if they will never be able to let go of each other. So much profound love in one sculpture, yet if is a frightened nod to impermanence. It is characterized by a particular sensitivity that typifies here entire oeuvre.
Linde Ergo is a dreamer, an incorrigible romantic. The world that she creates is the world that we all dream of: one that is gentler, more harmonious, more gracious than if is in reality. Her sculptures offer a means of escape. They are silent witnesses that descend from a poetic universe to lure us away, help us forget, and embalm our soul. They are an ode to the imagination, to the desire forperfection that we should never abandon.
Annelies A. A. Vanbelle April 2019
Art in public Space
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Linde Ergo was asked to create a sculpture for the indoor garden of the recently renovated hospital in the centre of Antwerp.
"The Sint-Vincentius hospital wanted to pay a lasting tribute to the lifelong efforts of the Zusters van Liefde, who founded the hospital in the early 20th century. Throughout history the sisters were strong, passionate, modest but pragmatic women. They were always at the service and available for the vulnerable and the sick in our society.
Linde Ergo's work had the proper visual language to interpret this attitude. Over 100 artists were contacted but no one else but Linde could express so strikingly the subdued strength of women. No one could grasp better this balance between the unpretentious availability and unfailing energy and dynamism in one single sculpture. When unveiling the sculpture it was obvious indeed how telling her visual language is."
Peter Mulkens
Algemeen Directeur
GZA Ziekenhuis
"Forever"
ArtA 'A
Kunstcentrum Aalter
September 2021
"De l'amour"
Zeedijk De Haan
Gemeente De Haan
"Hope"
Zeedijk De Haan
Gemeente De Haan
"Inner Circle"
Rotonde Zeedijk Wenduine
Gemeente De Haan
Reportage 2023
Exhibitions
1992-1998
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2020-2022
New York City, USA
Annual Exhibition Sculpture Center, Manhattan, NY
Purchase sculpture ‘Einstein’ by City Council, Gemeentebestuur De Haan
Art for Life - Rotary Genk
Gemeentehuis De Haan d’Annexe
Beukenhof-Phoenix Galleries SculpTour, Kluisbergen
Ridderzaal, Gemeentehuis Zottegem
Galerij Hores Sint-Martens-Latem
Beukenhof-Phoenix Galleries SculpTour, Kluisbergen
Nieuwpoortse Cultuurdagen Centrum Ysara
Galerij Hores Sint-Martens-Latem
Lineart, International Art Fair, Ghent
Art Center HOres, Sint-Martens-Latem
Galerij ‘t Hof te Puttens, Lede
Galerie De Beeldenstorm
Lineart, International Art Fair, Ghent
Art Nocturne Knocke
Art Center HOres Sint-Martens-Latem
Art Center HOres Knokke
Lineart, International Art Fair Ghent
Lille Art Fair, France
Art Nocturne Knocke
Art Center HOres, Sint-Martens-Latem
Art Center HOres, Knokke
Puchase sculpture “Hope” Hospital Antwerp GZA
International Art Fair Art Gent
International Art Fair Luxembourg
International Art Fair Eurantica, Brussel
International Art Fair Lille Art
Art Nocturne Knocke
NY Now, New York USA
Biënnale Hedendaagse Kunst, Aalter
Galerie La Lanka, Nederland
Galerie Lijn 3, Nederland
Art Center HOres, Sint-Martens-Latem
Art Center HOres, Knokke
Art Center Hores, Sint-Martens-Latem
Galerie A-Quadraat, Nederland
Publication Art Book
Art Nocturne Knocke
22e Sculpture Link, Knokke
Eurantica Fine Art Fair
Biënnale Hedendaagse Kunst, Aalter
Art Nocturne Knocke
Synergie – Art Center Hores, Knokke
Vrouw zijn – Art Center Hores, Sint-Martens-Latem
Art Center Hores, Knokke
Art Center Hores, Sint-Martens-Latem
Biënnale Hedendaagse Kunst, Aalter
Man-zijn – Art Center Hores, Knokke
Fusion – Art Center Hores, Sint-Martens-Latem
Sculpture@Sea, De Haan
Biënnale Hedendaagse Kunst, Aalter
Puchase of sculpture ‘Forever’ by city Council Aalter, ArtA’A
Art Center Hores, Knokke
Art Center Hores, Sint-Martens-Latem
Publication Art Book
Puchase Sculpture ‘Hope’by the municipality Gemeente De Haan
Purchase Sculpture ‘Inner Circle’, Wenduine
Sculpture ‘De l’amour’, Zeedijk De Haan
Biënnale Hedendaagse Kunst, Aalter
Scupltures@sea, De Haan
20 Kersen - for charity - Carlo bonte Auctions
Meise Botanic Garden, Brussels Museum
Art meets nature.
Ut Pictura poesis, ut musica poesis Stedelijk Museum Aalst
Art Center Horus, Knokke
Art Center Horus, Sint-Martens-Latem
Art Center Horus Laren, Netherlands