Nicolette Bénard is a Dutch sculptural artist whose work explores how identity is shaped, revealed and quietly concealed through cultural icons.
In her ongoing series The Veiled Self, the human face, our most immediate marker of individuality, disappears. In its place emerge sculptural forms enclosed in plexiglass. The body remains, yet the person seems to soften, almost dissolve.
Transparency and containment enter into a subtle dialogue. The plexiglass both protects and restricts. The figures appear preserved, carefully composed, almost serene, as if identity itself has taken a brief pause.
Rooted in her background as a goldsmith trained at Vakschool Schoonhoven, Bénard brings precision and refinement to her sculptural language. Her work moves between figuration and objecthood, balancing elegance with a quiet sense of unease that invites a second look.
Each work contains a genuine freshwater pearl, unaltered and understated, serving as a discreet signature of the artist and as an ode to her mother, who never left the house without her pearls and felt incomplete without them. Within the sculptures, the pearl becomes a small yet essential core.
There is clarity, but never complete certainty.
Perhaps that is where the work begins to smile.
What remains when the face disappears?
