Folkert de Jong

Folkert de Jong (b. 1972, Egmond aan Zee, The Netherlands) lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The artist is best known for his theatrical, narrative tableaux that explore themes of war, greed, and power. "When I watch the news or follow the world through the media," de Jong said in a 2013 conversation with critic Steven Cox, "I can't believe what I'm hearing and seeing, it seems like déjà vu, something repeating itself." A sense of tragedy and absurdity, a comically desperate psychological state, permeates his work, especially through the sculptural material for which de Jong became known: industrial Styrofoam and polyurethane insulation foam. Harsh and rough, with a heightened expressiveness in both material and subject matter, de Jong's figures embody a grotesque horror and macabre humor reminiscent of the work of 20th-century European artists Georges Grosz and James Ensor.

In 2012, de Jong began incorporating bronze into his repertoire and made his formal full debut in the medium for the 2013-14 solo exhibition Amabilis Insania: The Pleasing Delusion at the Middelheim Museum, Antwerp. The addition of bronze to de Jong's sculptural language represents an engagement with mortality, monumentality, and world history that is more nuanced and less visceral than the use of modern synthetic compounds that defined the first 15 years of the artist's practice. He continues to work in both media.

Folkert de Jong studied at the Academy for Visual Arts and the Rijksakademie for Visual Arts (Amsterdam). He was awarded the Prix de Rome for Sculpture in 2003 and has been included in the Busan Biennale (2016), the First Kiev International Biennale of Contemporary Art (Ukraine, 2013), the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art (Scotland, 2012), the 17th Sydney Biennale (Australia, 2010) and the Athens Biennale (Greece, 2007). de Jong has had numerous solo gallery exhibitions in New York, Milan, Amsterdam, UK, France, Spain, Mexico City and others. Museum exhibitions include Hepworth Wakefield (2014, Wakefield, UK), Musée d'Evreux (2014, Evreux, France), Middelheim Museum (2013, Antwerp, Belgium), Un Vie d'Illusions, Musée d'art Contemporain (2013, Rocheouart, France), MUDAM Museum (2013, Luxembourg), Portland Art Museum (2013, Portland, Oregon), Groninger Museum (2009, Groningen, The Netherlands).