“Apocalyptic Vision” art exhibit features Jake Van Wyk’s work

Artist Jake Van Wyk will hold the exhibit “Apocalyptic Vision” at Dordt University’s Campus Center Gallery and Art Department Gallery Lobby. The exhibit will run from November 20 – January 4. An artist’s talk and reception will be held on November 30 at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center Gallery.

Van Wyk taught art full-time at Dordt from 1991 until 2014. Since his retirement, Van Wyk has produced hundreds of clay works in production ceramics, sculpture in clay, drawing, painting, and multi-color lithographs from stone. His work has been exhibited at colleges and venues around Siouxland.

The “Apocalyptic Vision” exhibit highlights his wide range of studio techniques but is unique in that “it has some thematic consistency with images of angel eyes, angel presence, and mystery that I have investigated over the past 40 years,” says Van Wyk.

“The essential driving force of this body of work is the power of figurative movement and the metaphysical and metaphorical impact of angelic form and presence,” he explains. “There are also images of life and death, often using animals as metaphors for people and concepts of impending disaster or false dreams. While some of the themes are hard and a little scary, there is a terrible beauty in images that often flow from biblical truth and power.”

Van Wyk says that much of the work is retrospective, with the earliest works dating back to 1983.

A large clay installation entitled “The Coming” will also be on display at Dordt for the first time since it debuted at Dordt in 2014. Measuring nearly 8 feet tall, the tile and clay work depicts the four horses of the apocalypse with an angel of the Lord dispersing demons and horses. The work weighs close to 3,000 pounds and required nearly 500 hours to complete, involving a complex process of drying, firing, and epoxy reassembly on plywood sections for installation.”

The “Apocalyptic Vision” exhibit was on display at Mount Marty University in Yankton, South Dakota, when Van Wyke’s studio in rural Ireton caught fire. He lost hundreds of works of art, 500 collected books, tools, and more. Within a year he was able to rebuild the studio and now works out of a dream studio with museum-quality displays and fully functional studio spaces.

For more information about Jake Van Wyk, visit jakevanwyk.com/.

About Dordt University

As an institution of higher education committed to the Reformed Christian perspective, Dordt University equips students, faculty, alumni, and the broader community to work toward Christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary life. Located in Sioux Center, Iowa, Dordt is a comprehensive university named to the best college lists by the Wall Street Journal, Times Higher Education, Forbes.com, Washington Monthly, and Princeton Review.