JIM JACOBS / OCTOBER 1-DECEMBER 31
Utah-based sculptor Jim Jacobs has found that wood is his ideal medium. While a solid material, the formerly living organism is composed of cells that are malleable to the environment in which it is placed. It has been used as both a functional and creative resource for thousands of years, best known for its ability to expand, contract, bend and form to the variables of moisture, light and heat. Therein lie the qualities which fascinate Jim Jacobs – not only does the material provide a sense of stability, but also the prospect of fluidity.
Jim Jacobs, 'Dead Reckoning,' 2019, mulberry and maple wood, 48 x 40 x 34 in., $5,400
Jim Jacobs, 'Woof Moo,' 2024, maple and apple wood, 51 x 60 x 21 in., $5,400
Jim Jacobs, 'Ouroboros,' 2016, apple and maple wood, clothespin spring, 34 x 21 x 2 in., $2,600
Jim Jacobs, '61520,' 2020, cherry wood, 36 x 36 x 12 in., $3,800
Jim Jacobs, 'Body Check,' 2023, maple and apple, 56 x 36 x 8 in., $4,500
Jim Jacobs, 'Absalom,' 2017, cherry wood and human hair, 50 x 46 x 21 in., $5,200
Jim Jacobs, 'Patas Arriba,' 2019, found chair, maple and apple wood, 110 x 52 x 72 in., $9,400
Jim Jacobs, 'Flagellate,' 2016, maple and apple wood, 46 x78 x 25 in., $5,500
Jim Jacobs, 'Breach,' 2021, maple, wood, 50 x 120 x 120 in., $11,600
Jim Jacobs, 'Tap,' 2016, cherry wood and sledge hammer head, 52 x 2 x 20 in., $3,500
Jim Jacobs, 'Slip,' 2015, maple and mulberry wood, 46 x 110 x 14 in., $7,200
Jim Jacobs, 'Spiral,' 2016, cherry wood, 75 x 104 x 72 in., $10,000
Jim Jacobs, 'Exchange,' 2022, maple wood, 39 x 145 x 30 in., $11,600
Jim Jacobs, 'Unskinned #5,' 2023, maple and apple, 41 x 20 x 10 in., $4,000
Jim Jacobs began his undergraduate studies within the sciences, but found he was more drawn to the arts as a means for sharing what intrigued him. The artist emerged with a palette in one hand, brush in the other, and throughout the 80s and 90s challenged our traditional understanding of what a painting really could be. Sculpture stepped into the forefront of Jacobs’ mind as he would blend his canvases with the natural environment, create openings to engage with strips of wood passing through the center, and would even use window screens or other sheer materials as the surfaces of his compositions.
Early examples of Jim Jacobs’ work. Images courtesy of the artist.
Jacobs received both his Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees in painting, but ultimately found that the wooden structures which held his canvases up were more interesting than the paintings alone. While already pushing the boundaries of the stretched canvas, the artist began incorporating tree limbs, which then, in the context of the greater questions and wonders of nature, evolved into the three-dimensional pieces we see today.
Upon taking a first glance at the wooden sculptures, the viewer can follow the notion of our whimsical exchange and intertwining with the earth. There is the inclination of nature’s intricacies appearing in the human form – lightning strikes resembling the veins in our arms, the trunks of a freshly cut tree curving alike to the fingerprints which identify us, and even the land stretched by the earth’s plates appear to leave marks visibly similar to our skin.
Jim Jacobs
Dead Reckoning, 2019
mulberry and maple wood
48 x 40 x 34 in.
$5,400
This idealistic perspective is, of course, the factor which makes Jacobs’ work so fanciful. But perhaps at a further interrogation of the carefully jointed intersections of wood there becomes a sense of what lies on the opposing side of the spectrum – a feeling that is elementally unnatural. These sculptures are not direct reflections of nature’s obscurities. Moreso, the unruly twigs and angular junctions showcase the power imbalances between humans and the earth. As Jacobs describes it, this place in which we live, and often romanticize, is overruled by the declaration of humanity as the stewards of all other living beings and resources. The myth that humans “uphold the artifice of our exceptionalism” makes us blind to the disproportionate power we place over the planet.
Jacobs’ studio lies within the landscape of Ogden, Utah and is filled to the brim with his resources. Interestingly enough, the inner workings of his pieces are sourced from places you may have walked past without as much as a glance. As the artist shares, he has found the wood in his front yard, nearby mills, local construction sites and even dumpsters. The process of building each piece varies, but generally all begin with a simple sketch and come to fruition through experimentation and narrative-building. At times, the wood is laminated. On occasion, it is steamed. If necessary, it is cut, planed, drilled, notched or carved. Curiously, the artist most frequents the method of grafting in order to join the sculpture’s sections together.
A look inside the artist’s studio in Ogden, Utah.
In the traditional sense, grafting refers to, one, the horticultural technique used to join two distinct plants, and two, the medical procedure used to remove a healthy portion of skin to repair a damaged or missing piece located on another part of the body. For Jim Jacobs, grafting does just those things – and while not encouraging the growth of a living organism, it certainly encourages the integrity of the structure’s sturdiness and introduces unfamiliar manmade objects or even human hair. The grafted combinations are gangly, fragile and quite odd, placing the somewhat grotesque, but also realistic perspective back into play. It is the unnatural element which notifies the viewer this structure is, in fact, human-made. And while quite enthralling, it is exactly Jacobs’ goal to remind us of our elitism projected above nature’s form.
Jacobs continues to question our peculiar role within nature – how we can fully acknowledge our unleveled exchange, how we can find a consensus about the world we’d like to live in, and how we can repair our splintering social and political structures in order to shape the environment we envision.
Jim Jacobs
Mika's Ponytail 11, 2022
willow, human hair
39 x 5 x 3 in.
$1,500
Jim Jacobs
Ouroboros, 2016
apple and maple wood, clothespin spring
34 x 21 x 2 in.
$2,600
For more information on artwork details and acquisition, please contact us at info@modernwestfineart.com.