Wez Jacobs graduated from the Norwich School of Art and Design in 2002, receiving a First Class Honours degree in Fine Art Sculpture and was awarded the BA Fine Art prize for his degree show.
As well as working in his studio, Wez is a director of The Bullpen where he runs the foundry, and works part time as assistant to the sculptor Johannes von Stumm. He is now also a trustee of Ironbridge Museum of Steel Sculpture.
Current work:
Over recent years, Wez has concentrated on casting, moulding, and constructing sculpture. Presently, his practice is about a purity of form and shape.
Wez works in modelling clay and directly into wax to create these forms, derived from his drawings of human cell structures. By manipulating and juxtaposing distinctly familiar domestic symbols with cell forms to create almost animate objects, he has then made sand moulds and cast these objects in bronze and iron. Having worked in foundries in the USA and UK, and with sculptors renowned in the field of fine art casting, Wez enjoys learning new ways of working with materials.
Wez's work has been successfully exhibited since he established his sculptural practice in rural Oxfordshire. Working in his studio part time, he has annually opened it to the public for the past 5 years. He has also exhibited in Century Gallery, Hoxton; Sesame Art, Islington; goodness, Chiswick; The 5th International Iron Casting Symposium, Ironbridge; The Bullpen Gallery, Vale of White Horse; and Puthall Sculpture Park, Marlborough.
Wez's painting and sculpture investigates family history, and objects connected with home and community. Artists whose work he particularly enjoys include: Rachel Whiteread, Mona Hatoum, Anthony Caro, Lynn Chadwick, The Boyle Family, Jacob Epstein, Joseph Cornell
In a recent collection of large sculptural paintings, Wez expressed his desire to share an oral history. He made work that documents family history within a wider cultural context of communication and interaction between people.
Wez wants us to be drawn into another time and place through nostalgic visual memory-triggers, and to question what makes home and identity appealing and essential. Having dual-nationality (British/American) has conceptually influenced Wez's work. The paintings on wooden boards came about after his discovery of 1950s newspapers, clothing patterns and objects under the floorboards of his ancestral homeplace in the southern state of North Carolina, USA.
The Bullpen Arts Centre:
In addition to exhibiting his work, Wez Jacobs is the founding director of a new rural arts centre in South Oxfordshire. The Bullpen is sited on a farm near Stanford in the Vale, comprising artist studios, a fine art gallery, foundry and workshop space. Wez is the Art & Foundry Director at The Bullpen, and has made various furnaces in use there. At The Bullpen, a community of artists are working to facilitate contemporary art-making in a rural community. Three successful large-scale artist workshops have been run with funding from The Big Lottery and The Oxfordshire Community Foundation (via LNF). Community groups, schools and visitors take part in workshops run by artists, and are able to watch metal casting and other fine art processes in a creative space.
The arts centre is open by appointment, for funded workshops and during scheduled gallery exhibitions. For further information, check out The Bullpen website (link above).
Artist Profile
Name:
Wesley
Jacobs
Studio
Address:
The Bullpen
Faringdon Road
Stanford in the Vale
Oxfordshire
SN7 8NP
Tel: +44 (0)7811 097 190
Email: wez@wezjacobs.com
www: http://www.wezjacobs.com
Education:
Norwich
School of Art and Design St George Street, Norwich, NR3 1BB
1999-2002
North
Oxfordshire School of Art and Design Broughton Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire
1998-1999
Qualifications:
BA
(Hons) Fine Art Sculpture - First Class Honours
(Received BA Fine Art Prize)
2002
BTEC Foundation Diploma Art and Design - Distinction
1999
A
Levels Art - Grade A
Ceramics - Grade A
1998
Exhibitions:
Puthall Sculpture Park Puthall Marlborough
Nov 2008
Spring Exhibition The Bullpen Gallery, Oxon
May 2008
Cast Iron Sculpture Exhibition The Bullpen Gallery, Oxon
Dec 2007
Solo Exhibition 'Goodness', Chiswick, London
Nov 2005 - Mar 2006
International Contemporary Cast Iron Sculpture show The Bullpen Gallery, Oxon
May 2006
5th International Iron Casting Conference Exhibition Ironbridge Gorge Museum
Apr 2006
Open Studio The Bullpen Gallery, Oxon
May 2004 and May 2005
Sesame Art Upper Street, Islington, London
Feb 2004
Century Gallery Kingsland Rd, Hoxton, London
Dec 2003
Open Studio Mill Farm, Oxon
May 2003
Fine Art (Sculpture) Degree Show Norwich School of Art & Design
June 2002
Experience:
Art & Foundry Director The Bullpen, Oxon
2003 to present
Sculptor's Assistant Johannes von Stumm, FRBS
Jan 2008 to present
Director Bronze Casting Workshop. The Bullpen, Oxon
June 2008
Trustee Museum of Steel Sculpture, Coalbrookdale
2007 to present
Visiting Artist West Wales School of The Arts, Carmarthan, Wales
Oct 2007
Director International Cast Iron Workshop. The Bullpen, Oxon
July 2007
Cupola Furnace Operator 5th International Contemporary Cast Iron Art conference, Ironbridge
April 2006
Director International Cast Iron Workshop. The Bullpen, Oxon
Mar 2006
Foundry Assistant Tom Crompton's Foundry, Norwich
2005
Sculptor Iron Pour: Ironbridge Museum of Steel Sculpture
July 2005
Participant Bronze Casting Course, Royal Academy, London
Oct 2004
Sculptor Iron Pour: Ironbridge Museum of Steel Sculpture
July 2003
Sculptor Iron Pour: Ironbridge Museum of Steel Sculpture
July 2002
Visiting Artist Kansas State University Sculpture Dept. Manhatten, Kansas, USA
