CARL EMIL JACOBSEN (b. 1987) is a Danish sculptor whose practice has oscillated between art and design, revol­ving around existentialism, ritualistic sophisti­cation, and solid craftsmanship.

Working with found materials such as stones from the heath, bricks from demolished buildings, chalk­stone and marble, Carl Emil Jacobsen trans­forms massive stones into light, thin and crisp shells of fine color. As an ode to the richness of natural colors in the Nordic landscape, he brings new life to the powdered stone by converting it into layers of poetic colored pigment — in bright to burnt hues — and a sculptural element in itself. His iron sculp­tures, some polished, some burnt, are created intuitively out of welding work without preliminary studies resulting in fragmented pieces hammered together to instinctive forms.

Inspired by the dictum of late Danish sculptor Willy Ørskov's theory that “the content of the sculpture is sculpture”, his nonfigurative sculp­tures exist on their own terms as abstract, physical forms fostering experiential connection over intellectual interference in the elastic borderland between nature and culture.

Carl Emil Jacobsen graduated from the Kolding School of Design in 2012. He is represented by Galerie Maria Wettergren in Paris and has been exhibited at Art Basel, PAD, Clay Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark, Mindcraft Exhibition in Milan, Patrick Parrish Gallery, Chamber Gallery, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Piscine, and elsewhere.

(Photo Credit: TL Magazine; Source: Carl Emil Jacobsen)