Originally from the Netherlands, Rene Jansen immigrated to
New Zealand at the age of 21. He now resides in Laingholm, Auckland
and tutors in sculpture and assemblage at the Corban Estate Arts
Centre. Jansen's artistic practice developed from his earlier
forays into textile and furniture design.
Using a variety of media including aluminium, brass, canvas and
timber, Jansen's large geometric sculptures are impressive in their
scale, craftsmanship and grace.
Thematically, Jansen's work hints at the thin divide between
order and chaos, lending itself to a visual embodiment of the
concept of entropy. Indeed, Jansen describes his process as an
'internal struggle' whose results embody the coalescence of this
aesthetic turmoil in a unified and cohesive whole and it is this
tension between the chaotic, organic and unpredictable nature of
the painted gesture and the precise and monolithic nature of
Jansen's sculptural reliefs that defines his current practice.