Arnaud Rivieren • “Steel Life” • Sculptures

In our current climate of planetary uncertainty, the sublime has a shaky reputation. Once associated with overwhelming beauty—vast skies, towering cliffs, thunderous waterfalls—it is increasingly replaced by images of disruption and threat (wildfires, floodings, hurricanes…), where awe can feel uncomfortably close to dread. It is within this shifting landscape that Rivieren’s work finds its particular relevance: a sculpture of attention, where wonder is rediscovered not in spectacle, but in intimacy.

Rivieren’s practice is rooted in a striking paradox: the artist transforms discarded industrial metals —tubular steel, iron beams, barrels—into sculptural bodies of organic intensity, shaped by the vocabulary of fruit, seed pods, stones, cones, and trees. Built through rigorous steel crafting techniques and industrial finishing processes, these sculptures contradict the rigid function of their original material, revealing instead a kind of still life in motion: forms that feel intimate, tactile, and oddly alive.

This new show at LKFF Art Projects continues Rivieren’s distinctive shift: from the grand spectacle of the “natural sublime” toward an experience of awe through attention. Magnificence is no longer found in the overwhelming; it emerges through the close-up encounter, through scale that compels us to look again at what we normally overlook—those modest, familiar presences that normally pass through our days unnoticed. In these works, the stainless steel is not merely a medium—it becomes a conceptual instrument. Polished surfaces mirror the viewer, folding our presence into the sculpture’s skin, as though the work were not only being observed but also observing.

Rivieren’s shapes are “dictated by nature,” yet never reduced to simple imitation. They carry a sense of displacement—forms that seem transported from one realm to another, from the field, the orchard, the forest, the earth, into the gallery. In this shift of context, his sculptures become not only objects, but propositions: what deserves our respect, and what deserves our attention?

Born in Brussels in 1966 and established in Dubai since 2002, Arnaud Rivieren has developed his practice within the industrial landscape of the UAE, where he set up his foundry in Jebel Ali. Influenced by a background in the steel industry and the oil & gas field, he commands metals and alloys with the precision of an engineer—yet his sculptures ultimately refuse efficiency. They insist on contemplation. They invite stillness.

Discover the new solo exhibition by Dubai-based sculptor Arnaud Rivieren. Our gallery rooms in Beersel (Flanders) will be fully dedicated to Rivieren’s stainless-steel sculptures—works that expand his ongoing exploration of nature’s forms, memory’s distortions, and the uneasy poetry of permanence in an age of instability. The exhibition will run until May 3rd, 2026.