Through the use of a multitude of artistic mediums ranging from
painting to sculpture, DUGA brings together a particular aesthetic in
his works. This Belgian artist finds his roots, his influences, in
Primitive Arts, African art, Oceanic art, Native American art, raw
art, but also in naive art.
Born in 1963 in Brussels, Christian Dugardeyn (alias DUGA) is an
artist belonging to the Free Expression movement. After an
unavoidable stint at the Fine Arts, he quickly emancipates himself
from the artistic techniques taught to focus on his instinctive
emotions: detaching from academicism to create his own style. He
paints and sculpts viscerally, in a state of regression and on the
margins of contemporary artistic currents. The reappropriation of his
influences to give form to his emotions. DUGA expresses himself
through different techniques: drawing, painting, and sculpture.
Among contemporary artists, Basquiat, Combas and the free figuration
movement, Aléchinsky, Appel and the Cobra group, Picasso, Schiele
and expressionism, Dubuffet and Art Brut, Street Art, ... have
influenced his work.
An artist cannot remain in his corner, isolated. He must open up,
rework the influences of the past that speak to him.