Joost van den Toorn
From the sketches in clay or on paper, I continue with the one who has presence but whom I do not understand.
Joost van den Toorn creates sculptures that feel like three-dimensional cartoons, blending familiar shapes with unexpected, surreal twists. Using bronze and ceramic, his works combine themes of humor, darkness, and contradiction, often layering elements of violence, religion, and everyday life in ways that are simultaneously grim and funny. Inspired by Gothic art, ethnography, kitsch, and even children’s clay figures, van den Toorn’s sculptures challenge traditional notions of taste while keeping a human, approachable dimension.
With exaggerated forms and stacked compositions, his sculptures challenge ideas of refinement and “good taste,” instead celebrating raw expression. Shaped by the punk era of the 1970s, van den Toorn approaches art with irreverence, using humor and provocation to liberate sculpture from heavy tradition. The result is a body of work that feels both immediate and layered, balancing the absurd, the grotesque, and the human.
