Collection: Daisy Boman

architect husband’s work took the family to South Africa in the early 1980s, Daisy took a course in Johannesburg and began to exhibit widely, specialising in African-influenced, beautifully coloured murals. World-renowned Belgian ceramicist Daisy Boman grew up near Antwerp, in the province where she still lives and works. A talented artist as a child, she attended the Sissa school of art, followed by the Academy of Fine Art in Mol, where she studied interior design and photography. Later, ceramics became her passion, and when her architect husband’s work took the family to South Africa in the early 1980s, Daisy took a course in Johannesburg and began to exhibit widely, specialising in African-influenced, beautifully coloured murals. But the political situation in South Africa took its toll and affected her deeply – when the family returned to Belgium in 1987, she began to develop the work for which she would become internationally famous – the Bo-men.  These representations of the human form, ranging from the tiny to the monumental, are shaped in Westerwald clay and fired at 1160°C. Some are left plain, others coated with pigments and oxides and polished with wax. Before long, the Bo-men were known worldwide, and have been exhibited in London, Birmgham Strasbourg, Avignon, Zurich, Singapore and San Fransisco. A giant Bo-men sculpture, The Antwerp Whisperer, is now a popular tourist attraction in that city. Born in 1948, Daisy now lives and works in Geel, Belgium.