Frank Nijhoff

My work is investigating the balance between the abstract and the figurative. And I can best express myself using materials that can be sculpted in a three dimensional shape. I started working with ceramics, and shortly blown glass, but am now mostly working in stone: serpentine, alabaster, Belgian bluestone, gala, steatite, etc. Stone is resilient, unruly, brings interesting surprises, but also gives a good result and a rewarding process: For me that final product is important - it should look good shouldn't it? - but also the process of searching for shape, finding the limits of a stone, creating meaning out of a rough lump. And not to limit myself to a one-sided product, but it should be a three dimensional work with all sides integrated. Somewhere between abstract and figurative. The first sculptures I made next to my work in the field of Materials Science and Engineering (I studied this at the Technical University of Delft). Sculpting stone I learned doing workshops with people who had studied at the Rijksacademie - Dirk van den Velde en later Benn Schröer. Currently I am working mainly as a sculptor, and live and work in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.