| | | | Katrien Van Der Schueren Transforms Architecture into Sculpture in a New Site-Specific Commission for the Nazarian Collection |
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| | | | Katrien Van Der Schueren expands her Future Ruins series through a monumental concrete relief sculpted directly into the architecture of a private Bel Air residence. |
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| | | | For Belgian-born, Los Angeles-based artist Katrien Van Der Schueren, architecture is not simply the backdrop for art, but a medium in itself. Working at the intersection of art, architecture, and material, Katrien creates immersive works that transform moments of transition into sculptural experiences. Her latest private commission reimagines an existing elevator structure, terrace, and garden at a Bel Air residence as a unified composition shaped by movement, material, and place. |
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| | | | Created for the private art collection of author, philanthropist, and collector Angella Nazarian and her husband David Nazarian, the commission comprises a monumental sculptural relief integrated directly into the residence's existing elevator structure, alongside a custom outdoor concrete table. Sculpted entirely on site in fiber-reinforced concrete and composite glass, the relief transforms a functional architectural element into a tactile landmark marking the journey between the upper terrace and garden below. The accompanying table, developed in collaboration with interior designer Pauline Moghavem and sculpted on site, carries the same material language into the landscape, creating continuity between architecture, art, and the surrounding environment. The commission forms part of Katrien's ongoing Future Ruins series, which considers how objects and architecture accumulate meaning through material, memory, and time. Rather than creating sculpture as an object to be placed within a space, Katrien develops works that emerge from the architecture itself and become inseparable from their surroundings. "My role isn't to impose something onto a place but to enter into a conversation with it," says Katrien. "The best site-specific works feel as though they were always meant to be there." |
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| | | | Hand sculpted over the course of several months, the relief required an intimate understanding of both material and timing. Successive layers of concrete were applied directly to the architecture and shaped by hand during the narrow window in which the material remained workable. Once cured, the surfaces were further carved and refined to reveal their elongated forms. The process preserves evidence of the artist's hand while exploring the tension between the immediacy of making and the permanence of concrete. Left in the natural tone of the material, the relief creates a quiet counterpoint to the lush surrounding gardens. Embedded fragments of composite glass capture and refract the changing California sunlight, appearing almost like archaeological discoveries emerging from the surface. Designed to weather alongside the residence, the work allows light, nature, material, and time to become active collaborators in its evolution. Rather than resisting the passage of time, Future Ruins embraces it, allowing the work to accumulate history, memory, and meaning within the landscape until eventually, becoming a future ruin itself. |
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| | | | About Katrien Van Der Schueren Katrien Van Der Schueren is a self-taught Belgian-born sculptural artist based in Los Angeles whose work explores memory, materiality, and human connection through immersive, tactile experiences. Approaching sculpture as a spatial intervention, Katrien creates multi-material, layered works that invite discovery, participation, and a renewed sense of wonder. Rooted in the universal language of touch and feel, her practice seeks to connect viewers to their shared humanity through forms that are at once ancient and contemporary. Material exploration lies at the heart of Katrien's process. Working directly with wood, stone, clay, plaster, resin, metal, hemp, and other unconventional materials, she builds and carves surfaces through layering, transformation, and subtraction, often combining multiple crafts within a single work. Treating materials as collaborators rather than tools, she embraces experimentation and allows each medium to contribute its own character, history, and expression. Sought after for her ability to transform architectural and spatial environments, Katrien's works transcend the boundaries of sculpture, design, and installation, creating immersive narratives that encourage curiosity, connection, and participation. |
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