Name: Job Smeets
Born: The Netherlands, 1969
ARTZUID edition(s): ARTZUID 2023
About Job Smeets
Job Smeets’ designs can best be described as Gesamtkunstwerk, an ideal interplay of the arts. Job Smeets was educated at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. In his studio a collaboration between traditional craftsmen such as stained-glass artists, sculptors and bronze casters on the one hand and experts skilled in contemporary techniques such as laser and 3D Print on the other occurs. By combining these traditional and modern techniques, completely unique objects are produced, ranging from bronze sculptures for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to Dutch royal stamps or a Wunderkammer for Swarovski in Innsbruck. However versatile these projects are, they all share in common a love for detail. Smeets’ designs have been shown at over four hundred exhibitions and various objects have been included in museum collections worldwide.
During ARTZUID 2023, Job Smeets’ design Je Neemt Jezelf Mee / Bring Yourself will be on display, as an ode to Jan des Bouvrie. Following the death of the Netherlands’ most celebrated designer in 2020, a group of Jan’s best friends set up a foundation in his honour. To commemorate Des Bouvries’ heritage, internationally acclaimed artist Job Smeets was commissioned to create a memorial for the late designer. The work will be executed in his Netherlands-based studio Studio Job.
The work refers to a personal mantra of Jan des Bouvries which states that you always take yourself with you wherever you go. Artist Job Smeets wanted to form a sculptural representation of the ‘absence of Jan’, sculpted in polished bronze. Studio Job immortalized an enlarged version of Jan’s iconic cube sofa with his favourite ashtray, cigar box and sketchbook left behind as if Jan had just been there. “Everyone can sit and be, but they have to bring themselves,” explains Job Smeets.