Pinky Messchaert is an artist based in Utrecht.
In 1979 she graduated as a monumental designer from the art academy in Utrecht. Commissions from her years as a designer include a hanging object “Untitled” in the central hall of St. Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein (1984) and “Chance encounter” at the Belcourt shopping centre in Zeist (1996), which was recently (2016) re-installed on the Van Stolberglaan roundabout in Zeist.
After working as a monumental designer for a number of years, she decided to take a different path and chose to focus entirely on her own independent work.
In her early years after the academy she worked mainly with wood, but the possibilities of wood limited her too much in her creative process.
In her search for other materials she began experimenting with (old) iron. She soon saw the potential of the material, and from that moment on iron became the basic material of her work.
Pinky Messchaert is more of a “sculpture builder” than a sculptor. Her sculptures are assemblages, built up from a wide variety of found pieces of iron.
Her creative power shows in the characters she gives her sculptures and in the playful way she brings new life to discarded materials. Although her early work was largely abstract, Messchaert’s recent work can be called figurative.
That animals are a recurring theme in her work is no surprise, given that her studio is surrounded by nature.
An important stage for Pinky Messchaert’s work is her shop window at Hamburgerstraat 34 in Utrecht. Over the years the window has become a familiar sight. Many neighbours, as well as commuters on their way to work and parents taking their children to school, enjoy the work Messchaert shows in her window every day.
She aims to place a new sculpture in the window regularly, and her followers eagerly look forward to each one.