Sandfaces

Shells, faces and presences

After nearly ten years of professional experience in Brussels, Sandrine Peten’s life took a profound turn following a serious accident that forced her to stop working. Several years of rehabilitation followed, during which the desire to reconnect with a personal creative practice suited to her new physical abilities gradually emerged.

Sandfaces was born on the Belgian coast, in Knokke. Using shells she collected and carefully selected, Sandrine created her first masks as imaginary faces. What began as an intimate experiment quickly became a fully fledged artistic language.

Her works take the form of sculptural portraits depicting human or animal figures. Each piece, made entirely by hand, requires around a week of work and the assembly of several hundred shells. Sandrine develops her compositions from the shapes, shades and distinctive qualities of each natural element. Symmetry, color balance and facial expression occupy a central place in her creative process.

At the crossroads of sculpture, mask and contemporary curiosity, the Sandfaces question our perception of the face and the way a few assembled natural elements can give rise to an identity, an expression and a presence. Each work is unique and given a name, often inspired by a personality, a color or the emotion it conveys.

Sandrine Peten’s work has notably been presented in Knokke, then at Galerie Passé Simple in 2025. Her works now join Noran Gallery’s permanent exhibition in Marrakech, marking a new stage in Sandfaces’ artistic development and international reach.

Through this singular practice, Sandrine Peten transforms a natural material imbued with history and memory into contemporary characters, both familiar and enigmatic, each face telling its own story.