Rian de Jong

Bio

Rian de Jong was born in Holland in 1951. She graduated from the Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, in 1985. She was lecturer at the Art Academy of Utrecht between 1989 and 2000 and has been guest lecturer in Academies and Universities in several countries.

Her work is part of the following collections: Kunstgebouw NL, AVRO Kunstblik NL, Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem Nl, Gemeente Museum Den Haag NL, Srlanded Kunstmuseum NL, Haags Gemeentemuseum NL, Musee Des Art Decoratif Montreal C, Museum de L' Horlogerie Geneve CH, Museum für Angewante Kunst Hamburg D, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam NL, Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst (RBK) NL, Gemeente museum, Arnhem NL, Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam NL, Kruithuis Den Bosch NL, City of Amsterdam NL, Van Reekum Museum NL, Rijksdienst beeldende kunst NL, Government acquisition.

She has received numerous stipends and commissions. Her work is represented in various publications and has been shown in innumerable solo and group exhibitions around the world.
/ Source: Alternatives Gallery Website

Statement

She says: "By travelling you meet the world, the imagination and your work".
She sometimes goes for months at a time in search of experience, which later may have an influence on her work. That work is often - but not always - making of jewellery.
Her wooden hand and shoulder ornaments were selected for Ornamenta 1, the international event that was a meeting -place for contemporary developments in the artists jewellery world, 1989. For Rian de Jong, who graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, in 1985, it was a breakthrough.
Her work stood out in the field of modern jewellery in the Netherlands because of her use of wood, a material whose characteristics she did not overwhelm but channelled and intensified.
Rian de Jong processes many different materials into forms which may be carried in different ways on various parts of the body.
She seeks the nature and meaning of both form and material. There is a tension between the surface and the form through juxtaposition of different materials. There is always a quest, the going, as in the journey.
Her work is showed in galleries and collected by many museums, all over the world.

/ Marjan Unger 1999

CV