Jan Vercruysse

Jan Vercruysse uses industrial materials such as corten steel, bronze, iron, and glass to create mixed-media installations that challenge the sculptural vocabulary of Minimalism. Beginning his career by producing photographs of self-portraits, still lifes, and mythological scenes, he turned to a pared down sculptural practice. While accepting the minimalist principle of art that refers only to itself, his sculptural arrangements of narrow rooms, empty frames, bases without objects, and plaster household objects try to push the spectator beyond the work, towards symbolism. “Art has to create something ‘else’, has to ‘be else’ for me, with archetypal images. I want to feel in a work the strong wish of ‘distancing’.”