Jos Devriendt “You Are Gold”

Demisch Danant

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Demisch Danant presents You Are Gold, an exhibition of new ceramic works by noted Belgian artist and designer Jos Devriendt. Comprising more than 30 unique lamps of gold glazed stoneware and bronze, the presentation will be Devriendt’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. You Are Gold continues Demisch Danant’s exploration of European design since the 1950s, through exhibitions, research, publications, and public programs that connect postwar and contemporary advances in form and technology as signposts along the continuum of broader cultural change.

For the past 20 years, Jos Devriendt has been working with the mushroom as an archetypal form translated into functional sculpture. Part of an ongoing series known as Night and Day, Devriendt’s lamps express his interest in the ways the passage of time and changing of atmosphere can transform our perception of objects and their contexts. With the works on view in You Are Gold, Devriendt introduces gold and bronze as means to advance his formal investigation. With their variations in luster and reflectivity, the lamps here create a range of visual effects that defy clear distinctions between day and night.

Devriendt describes his purpose as follows: “As a sculptor I want to reshape the form from day to night, solely with light: the daylight, which shines upon the sculpture and the artificial light, which comes from within and erases the material form. After researching the form, I experimented with different colors as a means to alter the meaning of the form. Like abstract painters use colors to give a meaning to their work, I do in a three dimensional way.”

Born in Ostend, Belgium, in 1964, Jos Devriendt makes works based upon what he has described as “a late surrealistic concept.” His pieces are handcrafted: each object is a unique example and conceived to present a simple expression of complex aesthetic problems. Devriendt studied ceramics at the LUCA School of Arts, and sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Ghent.