SCULPTURES
ABOUT
Dutch, b. Utrecht, The Netherlands
lives and works in London)
Bouke de Vries is a Dutch-born ceramic artist currently living and working in London. He has lived a life that is much like his artwork — a mash-up of old-world skills that he uses to remix, reorder, and deliver overt contemporary satire and social commentary. The reverse of Ai Weiwei, who dramatically dropped the Han dynasty urn to make a point about the loss of history, de Vries puts the broken back together to re-contextualize the past.
Using his skills from art conservation, de Vries applies gold (kintsugi technique) to highlight the cracks of exploded ceramic matter to create new meaning and added value to shattered ceramic vessels and figurines, archeological finds, sunken treasure, and scavenged beach shards. Sad stories of accidents, disasters, mistakes, and loss become new triumphs. Using the skills of the conservator and reversible but miraculously strong adhesives, deVries actually does put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
With his skillful touch and biting wit, de Vries’ shards come to life to deliver a humorous punch or social commentary. de Vries’ career, like his work, is exploding.
De Vries studied at the Design Academy Eindhoven, and Central St Martin’s, London. After working with John Galliano, Stephen Jones and Zandra Rhodes, he switched careers and studied ceramics conservation and restoration at West Dean College. De Vries has exhibited throughout the US and internationally. His recent installation, War and Pieces will make their US debut in early 2019 at the Montgomery of Museum of Art in Alabama and the Wadsworth Atheneum. His work can be found in numerous public collections including the National Museum of Norway, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Aberdeen Art Gallery in Aberdeen, Scotland among many others.
Click here to view a video presented in The New York Times Magazine, Art & Design section. Dutch artist Bouke de Vries discusses the inspiration behind his work at his West London home and studio. (Oct. 2014)
War & Pieces is an eight-metre, 26 foot installation by Dutch-born artist Bouke de Vries inspired by the sophisticated figural centerpieces that decorated eighteenth-century European rulers’ banqueting tables. Displayed during the dessert course on special occasions, these figures first made of sugar and later increasingly porcelain, told stories or conveyed political messages to the diners.
Bouke de Vries draws on such traditions in his modern centerpiece, arranged around the mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion whose force appears to have turned the entire table into a wasteland. Battle rages across this heap of shards old and new, fought by myriad miniature figures with conventional arms. Jesus on the cross and the Chinese Buddhist goddess of compassion Guanyin watch over the death and destruction.
War & Pieces has been exhibited at ten venues in Europe and Asia, beginning in 2012 at the Holburne Museum in Bath, England with support from the Arts Council of Great Britain. At each venue, de Vries worked with the curators and the collection by responding to the region, its history and interact with the interior settings. In some he was able add to the installation using relevant objects from the collection. The image featured is the setting of Charlottenburg Palace, which was looted in the Seven Years’ War and almost completely destroyed in the Second World War adding a special meaning to the era spanning work.
In 2019, it began a museum tour in North America.
CURRENT + RECENT EXHIBITIONS
BOUKE DE VRIES: War & Pieces | North America Tour
Lightner Museum, St. Augustine, FL
April – December, 2022
SELECT PAST EXHIBITIONS
BOUKE DE VRIES with New England Public Radio, November 6, 2018
BOUKE DE VRIES in Architectural Digest, October 17th, 2018
BOUKE DE VRIES in the Hartford Courant, October 9, 2018
UPCOMING EVENTS
Revive, Remix, Respond at The Frick Pittsburgh
Ceramic Arts Daily: Bouke de Vries
Telegraph Magazine: Bouke de Vries
Flights of Imagination The west London home-cum-studio of artist Bouke de Vries makes for the perfect gallery for his creative refashionings of antique ceramics and vintage objects. By Cloe Grimshaw with photos…
The New York Times video: Bouke de Vries
Video from The New York Times, Art and Design, October 2014. Dutch artist Bouke de Vries discusses the inspiration behind his work at his West London home and studio. Click here…
RE—Reanimate, Repair, Mend and Meld
RE—REANIMATE, REPAIR, MEND AND MELD co-curated by Paul Scott and Andrew Baseman a group show of work by contemporary ceramic artists explores the issues of conservation, restoration, over-consumption, reuse, and…
New York Times: Lasting Beauty, Even in Shards
In the New York Times Art and Design section, author Martha Schwendener reviews the 2016 New York Ceramic & Glass Fair. Her article features Ferrin Contemporary and ceramic artist Bouke…
Decor Arts Now: “Friday Field Trip: New York Ceramics & Glass Fair”
Lynn Byrne of Decor Art Now says, “I love this show because it is so intimate and colorful, plus it celebrates the best of old and new wares. Often times the contemporary…
IN New York: The Art of the Hunt
IN NEW YORK magazine’s January 16, 2016 special art feature, “The Art of the Hunt,” by Terry Trucco, investigates the hottest items at this January’s art shows. In the section…
C-File: New York Ceramics & Glass Fair 2016
C-File’s Bill Rogers highlights selections from the fair. “The selections on display come to us from across time, spanning the 17th century to today.” Ferrin Contemporary’s Bouke de Vries work…
PEM: A Thing for Porcelain
In their online blog, Connected, the Peabody Essex Museum’s Dinah Cardin connects some porcelain dots — dots of music, literature, Edmund de Waal, Bouke de Vries, and the clay itself. Click here…
New York Ceramics & Glass Fair 2016
Ferrin Contemporary presents Paul Scott in “Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s): American Scenery” at the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair 2016. Public Lecture: January 22, 2pm Join us for a lecture…
Bouke de Vries: War & Pieces Exhibition Catalog
Bouke de Vries’ contemporary interpretation of the decorative sculptures that adorned 17th- and 18th-century banqueting tables.
War & Pieces is an eight-meter (26-foot) installation by Dutch-born artist Bouke de Vries inspired by the sophisticated figural centerpieces that decorated eighteenth-century European rulers’ banqueting tables. Displayed during the dessert course on special occasions, these figures first made of sugar and later increasingly porcelain, told stories or conveyed political messages to the diners.
Bouke de Vries draws on such traditions in his modern centerpiece, arranged around the mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion whose force appears to have turned the entire table into a wasteland. Battle rages across this heap of shards old and new, fought by myriad miniature figures with conventional arms. Jesus on the cross and the Chinese Buddhist goddess of compassion, Guanyin, watch over the death and destruction.
Click image to view the catalog online
Click to see more of de Vries’ work
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