Jakob Steen

Based in Præstø Denmark, inter-disciplinary artist Jakob Steen (b. 1986) works across painting, sculpture and installation.

Showing a specific interest in the symbiotic relationship between sensation and state of mind, Steen's works often evoke lush vegetative forms and the hot damp atmospheres that are conducive to their flourishing. In his practice Steen adopts the pre-conscious experiential logic of dreams and demonstrates a long-standing interest in how sensory cues can be adapted to nourish and stimulate the feeling individual. In his paintings Steen strikes a careful balance between figuration and abstraction; surreal and ambiguous hybrid animals are often positioned within intensely radiant colour fields to give the impression of a slightly removed transcendent plane of existence.

Steen has also developed a signature repertoire of materials and his preference for a tactile fish glue medium when painting, is complemented by his use of thick hand-mixed scagliola in the more sculptural elements of his work. Building up his compositions across all media through a process of meticulous layering, Steen's work is both time-based and meditative in its insistence on the importance of establishing certain mental conditions before anything else can follow.

Recent exhibitions includes: Here Come The Suns at Bark Gallery (Berlin DE 2021), Genklang at C4 Projects (Copenhagen DK), Soil. Sickness. Society at Rønnebæksholm (Næstved DK, 2021), Am I Not Here to Be Your Mother at Bricks Gallery (Copenhagen DK, 2021), Group show at Alice Folker (Copenhagen DK, 2020), "Rammet af Solen" at Bricks Gallery (Copenhagen DK, 2019) and Tiger Wonder: Om Mani Padme at Collaborations (Copenhagen DK, 2018).

The artist lives and works in Præstø, Denmark