DRIES CELIS

Visual artist  ·  former international short-track speed skater

PROFILE

Belgian visual artist working at the intersection of sport and human experience. Drawing on a former career in international short track, Celis uses drawing, painting and sculpture to explore ambition, discipline, vulnerability, ethics, play, memory and performance.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS

2026  OLYMPIC DREAM — exhibition
Drawings, paintings and sculptures reframing a former Olympic dream through art. With texts by Eline Berings and a contribution by Robin Carlier (Coaching In Context). Artist talk with Celis and Berings, moderated by Hilde Van Canneyt, 7 February 2026.

2026  MM1 — group exhibition, Merelbeke-Melle, Belgium
Selected group exhibition; presented at Kerk Schelderode.

2024–  TIME TO PLAY — ongoing body of work
Sculptural and installation-based work on play, ethics, collaboration and performance; including the monumental steel work TIME TO PLAY (2024).

ATHLETIC BACKGROUND — SHORT TRACK

International competition for Belgium · De Schaverdijn, Hasselt

2004–06  8 ISU World Cup meetings
United States · Canada · Hungary · Slovakia · China · South Korea · Italy · Netherlands

2005  ISU European Short Track Championships — Torino, Italy
Belgian national team; individual distances and 5000 m relay.

2005  ISU World Junior Short Track Championships — Belgrade
Represented Belgium at the World Junior Championships.

SELECTED PERFORMANCE MARKERS

500 m  44.062 · Den Haag, 2005     1000 m  1:31.217 · Reims, 2005
1500 m  2:25.564 · Budapest World Cup, 2005

ARTISTIC CONTEXT

Celis' practice treats the body as both medium and mirror: a place where strength and vulnerability, control and play, and achievement and desire meet. His sporting biography functions as source material rather than as a separate chapter from the work.

ONLINE

Portfolio  www.driescelis.com     Artist profile  Sculpture Network — Dries Celis

Updated September 2026 · Competition data checked against public short-track result archives.