Nick Cave and Philippe Van Cauteren

Nick Cave discusses his exhibition, The Devil — A Life (5 April—11 May 2024), with the artistic director of S.M.A.K., Philippe Van Cauteren.

“I think the Devil gave me a kind of disguise. Even though I didn’t really know at the time of making them, it was ultimately a way of coming to certain realisations about things happening in my life. So, it was never me, but it was in the end very much so.”

'The Devil — A Life' (2020-24) by Nick Cave is a series of seventeen glazed ceramic figurines that tells the cradle-to-grave story of the Devil. More everyman than fearsome Antichrist, he is an allegorical character who experiences the vicissitudes of life in a very human way. Presented in Belgium for the first time, this narrative work is a visual expression of the artist’s abiding interest in religion as a catalyst for a deeper and more creative approach to life.