Bio
Jon Laustsen is an artist and educator whose practice bridges sculpture, installation and DIY building processes. His artwork blurs artifactual-ness with abstract invention, and gravity with understated humor. Mixing earthen and common building materials with bamboo, wood and steel, Laustsen forges inner and outer forms together, structurally translating them into discernible yet transformed fragments suspended between pre and post-historical time.
Laustsen is the recipient of two fellowships and a merit fellowship for three-dimensional art from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. His sculpture most recently won 2nd prize at the 2026 National Open Juried Exhibition at the Providence Art Club, and a Juror's Choice Award at the 2024 National Prize Show hosted by the Cambridge Arts Association. His work has been exhibited in group and solo shows across Southern New England as well as Miami, Minneapolis and New York City. Laustsen earned his MFA in sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in philosophy at Bethel University (St. Paul, MN). He lives and works in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Statement
The closer one gets to the core, the further they may seem from the surface.
My fascination with sculpture stems from a desire to delve deep beneath the surface and explore hidden structures that support and shape our world. The current body of work is suggestive of statuesque-like wind-turbines as culturally significant artifacts reflecting simultaneously a contemporary present and distant future. These re-imagined wind turbine forms, created with hand-applied concrete, plaster, foam, clay and paint, emerge from my practice as a repeating motif for embodying varying themes of loss, spirit, and time.
CV
Contact
Please email for any inquiries:
jonlaustsen@gmail.com