Artist Spotlight I Jacob van der Beugel
Jacob van der Beugel
Cut and Paste 2, 2023
Ceramics, wooden frame
120 x 130 x 5 cm
3ft 9¼ x 4ft 2⅛ x 2 in.
The work challenges the way we think about change in a material synonymous with permanence: What happens when we try and prevent change? Can we alter the way we think about change and embrace it?
- Jacob van der Beugel, 2024
Jacob van der Beugel creates ceramic wall panels and sculpture to explore the language of scientific data. His ceramic and concrete works vary in scale, from large site-specific architectural installations to smaller sculpture and wall pieces. Jacob passionately believes in the importance of art as a platform to discuss contemporary scientific issues, as his work acts as bridge between science and art.
His recent work, shown here at Roche Court Sculpture Park in our Design House, explores the interpretation of DNA samples and disease patterns, endeavouring to rationalise and rehumanise these scientific abstracts. His panels can be shown both inside and outside.
The Mutation Series
Jacob van der Beugel
Mutation Series, 2020
Handmade ceramic components, concrete, recycled aggregate, liquid rust, self-healing concrete
300 x 175 cm
118 ⅛ x 68 ⅞ in.
Jacob van der Beugel
Mutation 2, 2019
Handmade ceramic components, concrete, recycled aggregate, liquid rust
300 x 175 cm
118 ⅛ x 68 ⅞ in.
For 18 months, Jacob van der Beugel worked intensively in his studio to create The Mutation Series. The works comprise of four large self-healing concreate panels, which are the result of heavy physical involvement and handling.
The Mutation Series act as a narrative, mapping the journey and formation, movement and decay of human tissue and cells. As we change throughout life, our cells mutate with us, whilst also ultimately remaining unaltered at the core.
Jacob van der Beugel, Mutation 3, 2020 - detail
Ceramics are an art of transformation, the changing of material through fire. A finished ceramic vessel is a sublimation of all the activity that has gone into its creation: in T.S. Eliot’s words ‘The stillness, as a Chinese jar still/Moves perpetually in its stillness.’ The jar is a contemplative symbol of resolution: an image of contemplative grace. Jacob’s work takes this idea of transformation but brings it into fierce enquiry with mutation, how gene cells change and how these can be visualised. There is no stillness here. It is, he writes ‘a mutating story.’
- Edmund de Waal
Born in London in 1978, Jacob van der Beugel now lives and works in Devon. In 2003-4 he was an assistant to leading UK ceramicist and author Edmund de Waal, after working as an apprentice to potter and author Rupert Spira.
In 2014, Jacob van der Beugel completed The North Sketch Sequence, which was described as the 'most important art installation at Chatsworth since the creation of the Sculpture Gallery in 1832’. A permanent installation that captures a ceramic DNA portrait of the ducal Devonshire family. The North Sketch Sequence captures contemporary and traditional notions of identity. Alain de Botton has described the work as a beautiful poetic work which is exemplary in the way it manages to turn information (of which we have so much, and which usually leaves us so cold) into art (which touches our hearts).
Jacob van der Beugel has completed several artist residencies, which have fed into his practice significantly, including in 2015, at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, and in 2016 at York University’s epidemiology department. In 2006, van der Beugel won the Arts Council Research and Professional Development Award, and in 2023 became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors.
Jacob van der Beugel’s work is collected internationally, and held in numerous public collections, including the V&A, London; University of Cambridge, UK; the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Netherlands; and the University of York, UK.
Jacob van der Beugel
Order Series, 2020
Installed in the Orangery at Roche Court Sculpture Park, September 2023
In January, Jacob van der Beugel’s art film about data will be screened in Munich and Berlin, and then onto the Royal Society with Sabina Leonelli. Subsequently in May 2025, his work will be shown in a solo exhibition at Richeldi’s Fine Arts, in Barcelona. This exhibition will feature new ceramic panels and sculpture.
Listen in at Roche Court
Jacob van der Beugel
Jacob van der Beugel in discussion with students from Andover College, Hampshire, during the recording of his 'Listen in at Roche Court' podcast episode, 2023.
Jacob van der Beugel in conversation is available to stream now, as part of the 'Listen in at Roche Court' podcast series.
This conversation between artist Jacob van der Beugel and students from Andover College, ruminates on the language of ceramics, and how his practice has incorporated unexpected materials such as concrete, to communicate new meanings. This diverse discussion addresses topics such as the potential of partnerships between art and science; and explores the ideas presented in his work, including his interest in genetics and DNA, the relationship between determinism and self-determination, and in what ways his works might be seen as ‘portraits’.