Peter Jonckheere

Peter Jonckheere was born and still lives in Bruges, his hometown to which he has always remained loyal. He is known among friends as a homebody, loyal, modest, modest, amiable and above all very honest personality.

Peter started at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1980. After school hours he discovered cafés such as B10, Femme Fatale, Villa Djava, Pipeline and the Versteende Nacht. His 'safe places' where the soundtrack of his cherished youth was written.

In 1991 he started working independently as a visual artist right after his studies (or are you one from birth...?). To date he has been very productive.

As a beloved and well-known graphic designer, he has given Bruges many artistic meanings through publicity for countless events. Over the years, his contribution of visual work in numerous exhibitions, both in private galleries and at the CC Bruges, has enjoyed great public interest. He became very well-known, especially in his early years, through the numerous designs he provided for the posters for the Cactus Festival in Bruges.

He was also the driving force behind the entire promotional campaign, including works of art and a poetry book, for 'Leven als LijfMotief' by CGSO and Levenshuis Bruges.

Peter is an artist "pur sang".

Musea Groeninghe has purchased work by Peter.

Peter has an incredibly small ecological footprint, has no car or driver's license, buys his clothes in thrift shops, and has been a vegetarian for 40 years, but also an avid waste sorter and collector, which he uses in his mixed media for his visual work. Only recycled material!

You can usually find Peter in his own art, music and food café Parazzar, which he has been running passionately with his husband Joeri Hostens since 2008. Joeri is the son of jazz giant Tony "van den Heidelberg" and briefly ran the then very well-known jazz bar De Versteende Nacht from 2004 to 2006, where he got to know Peter better...

Soulbar Parazzar has grown into a real concept in the Bruges hospitality industry since 2008 and has since gained national and international fame. Parazzar regularly accommodates artists from the MaZ cultural venue and the internationally renowned Concertgebouw. Since 2011, Parazzar has been on the world map in terms of offering a platform for the highest form of Improvisation music, avant-garde and contemporary music. In the meantime, more than 150 artists from all over the world have passed our revue.

A beautiful permanent photo exhibition (by photographer Geert Vandenpoele) brings these unique concerts back to life in the café.

Since 2020, Peter has set up his studio in the attic of Parazzar. On April 13, 2025, Peter opened his own gallery called N.E.S.T., just across from the Parazzar.
Mr. Jan Verhaeghe, responsible civil servant for the art and culture department in Bruges, wrote about N.E.S.T. "Given the years of positive ties with fellow citizen Peter Jonckheere, the acquisition of a new EXPO space could mean a very nice collaboration with the City of Bruges". 

In the meantime, well-known art critics such as Daan Rau and Johan Debruyne have written a nice review about their visit to the gallery.

Discover Peter, an artist driven by an unstoppable, spontaneous talent for drawing, very productive and exhibiting regularly. His unique approach transforms a tactile appeal of everyday materials - whether it is an old sheet of paper or a stained piece of cardboard - into breathtaking art.

Peter has always remained true to his oeuvre and style. Each piece in his collection testifies to how he skillfully transforms the traces of the current time into his unique representation of the drawings. Man and the human body, with all their flaws and excesses, are an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Translating a body as a far-out-ward representation of what is going on inside Peter.

Drawing something without music is impossible for him. The right melody puts Peter in the right frame of mind. Lyrics creep unashamedly into his work and occasionally find a place on the paper.

Figurative, yes, and almost exclusively male nude. A line in pencil or charcoal can best represent the physical fragility or strength of a figure. He usually makes preliminary sketches in booklets, which are then later redrawn on sheets of paper or cardboard. Often these pieces remain lying around in his studio for years and he continues to work on them when the ravages of time become visible.
He rarely starts from a blank sheet.

The effort to create something is more interesting than the result, he quotes. Incidentally, he never considers that result as an end goal. 'I am proud of every finished piece, but the 'satisfaction' never lasts long. The restlessness and discomfort within me constantly force me to make new work.'