press
Joke Raes, like a guide narrating a cabinet of curiosities or a medium communicating with spirits, intercedes on our behalf so that Earth is no longer perceived as an inanimate object but as a planetary subject bearing an “I,” a “we,” clothed in a vibrant skin of vegetation, liquid, fungi, teeming with life and emotions. The synecdoche is evident in her work: the part stands for the whole. Relics transform into reliquaries. Ceramic sculptures carry the memory and essence of their own material. Shaped, kneaded, worked raw; fired, glazed, enameled, printed, machined—the earth quietly retains traces of its loci.
Joke Raes has named this residency “Fragile Connections.” The artist seems to communicate with her surroundings. During her residency, architectural details, flowers, stained glass, fabric patterns, and personal reminiscences tied to Bruges, Ghent, other travels, countries, or passing sensations—such as light filtering through a window—inform her work.
She transcribes these impressions during nocturnal hours, accompanied by background music, onto A4 sheets in a state of deep concentration, akin to hypnosis. There is a musical and incantatory quality to the process, a compelling rhythm, a mantra, reminiscent of a composer bent over their score or Henri Michaux's mescaline-induced drawings. Spirals emerge, evoking illustrations from Art Forms in Nature by German biologist Ernst Haeckel or Rorschach test patterns. Often mirrored, these mirabilis are tinted with pastel watercolors using water drawn from the Seine. Other drawings of tangled lines are created by mixing this "love water" with clay powder.
On the studio walls, arabesques proliferate daily, while small raw clay sculptures materialize under the artist’s precise movements. These resemble Egyptian hand mirrors or ex-votos. Joke Raes also brought two porcelain pieces from her Masks X series. Despite their soft coloration, they are both fascinating and unsettling, covered in tentacles and spines reminiscent of sea anemones or sea urchins. These masks, akin to the Muse of Comedy or the Gilles of carnival traditions, seem ready to leap at us or, conversely, draw us in.
Joke Raes’ work transcends mirrors, flips masks and inner landscapes, and explores imaginary and psychoanalytical territories, shaping new memories. Her Masks X confront us with the “Uncanny” within ourselves—the mystery of origins (sous X), prohibition (classified X), or multiple identities. As an inspiration for the Surrealist movement, these concepts—borrowed from the German psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s essay—are slightly reductive in their French translation. Das Unheimliche refers not only to the familiar and the home (heim) but also to secrets, to what must remain hidden.
Repetition, revisiting, reiteration, seriality, and an obsessive quality are central to Joke Raes’ practice. They reflect her desire to capture the diffuse, the flow, the fleeting, the imperceptible movement of metamorphosis and transmutation, and the secret alchemy of images that reflect infinitely before our eyes, under our eyelids, and behind our retinas.
CATHERINE DOBLER
Founder Fondation LAccolade
Overseas WORLD
A Young Belgian Artist: Joke Raes
Sculptural Art Revealing the Materiality of Clay
In Europe—particularly in Belgium and the Netherlands—there is a growing tendency among artists to use clay as a medium of expression. They consistently speak about the “infinite diversity” that clay can embody. One of the greatest attractions unique to ceramic art lies in the direct contact between the material chosen for the work and the artist’s own hands.
Through various paths, artists who have deeply experienced and become fascinated by the material properties of clay connect it with their original disciplines or embrace its physical qualities to create entirely new artistic worlds.
At Ceramic Brussels, first held in Brussels in 2024, I was able to strongly sense this trend gathered in one place. (See Monthly Ceramics Vol.336, Vol.348.)
The Belgian city of Bruges selected Joke Raes—winner of the Young Artist Prize at Ceramic Brussels 2024—as its featured artist for 2025. Exhibitions were organized in various public spaces, including the city library, providing many people the opportunity to encounter her work.
At the Bruges Cultural Centre, a group exhibition titled “5-V: Verschijn, Verdwijn, Verschuif, Verbind, Verhaal” (Appear, Disappear, Shift, Connect, Narrate) was curated, including Raes’ solo presentation alongside works by artists active in ceramics and other disciplines.
In the city of Ghent, a solo exhibition was held presenting Raes’ work from her early period to the present, accompanied by the publication of an exhibition catalogue.
Thanks Yoon Kyung Lee
해외 WORLD
벨기에의 젊은 예술가 Joke Raes
흙의 물성이 드러나는
조형 예술
유럽에서는, 특히 벨기에와 네덜란드를 중심으로 활동하는
예술가들이, ‘흙’을 표현 재료로 사용하는 경향이 점점 늘어
나고 있다. 그들은 흙으로 표현할 수 있는 ‘무한한 다양성’
에 대해 한결같이 이야기한다. 작품 제작을 위해 선택된 재
료와 두 손이 직접적으로 접촉하는 방식은 도자예술에서만
경험할 수 있는 큰 매력 중의 하나이다. 어떤 경로를 통해서
든, 흙의 물성을 깊이 체험하여 매료된 예술가들은 자신들
이 전공한 분야와 흙을 연결시키거나 흙의 물성을 담아 새
로운 예술세계를 창조해 내고 있다.
2024년부터 브뤼셀에서 최초로 개최된 <C e r ami c
Brussels>에서 필자는 이런 경향을 한 공간에서 강하게 느
껴볼 수 있었다. (월간 도예 Vol.336, Vol.348 참고)
벨기에의 도시, 브뤼게B r u g g e는 2025년의 예술가로
<Ceramic Brussels 2024>에서 젊은 작가상을 수상한
Joke Raes를 선정하였고, 도시 내의 도서관을 비롯한 여러
공공시설에 전시를 개최하여, 많은 사람들이 그의 작품을
만나 볼 수 있는 기회를 제공하였다. 브뤼게 문화센터에서
는 Raes의 개인전이 포함된, 《5-V: Verschijn, Verdwijn,
Verschuif, Verbind, Verhaal (드러나고, 사라지고, 움직
이고, 연결하고, 이야기하다)》라는 주제의 그룹전을 기획하
여 도자를 비롯한 다양한 분야에서 활동하는 작가들의 작
품을 전시하였다. 또한 도시, 겐트Gent에서는 Raes의 초기
부터 현재까지의 작품 전체를 보여주는 개인전이 진행되었
고, 전시 도록이 출판되었다. 필자는 전시장에서 그리고 브
뤼게의 한 카페에서 작가를 만나 도자예술과 조형예술에
관한 다채로운 이야기를 나눌 수 있었다.
고마워요, 윤경 이.
Wandermask, Joke Raes palmt Japanse tuin in Oostende in, Artcouch
Posted By Frederic De Meyer
Kunst maken, het lijkt soms op een eeuwige strijd tegen de weerbarstige beperkingen die ons menselijk bestaan zowel biologisch als maatschappelijk oplegt, om buiten de limieten te treden, of zich tenminste in te beelden hoe het zou zijn om erbuiten te vertoeven. Grenzeloos leven, de volle ruimte bieden aan de ‘wilde tuin van verbeelding’ die ons uiteindelijk tot mens maakt.
“Opeens krijg ik een leeftijd in mijn leven”, verwoordt Joke Raes het gevat. Een jong gezin georganiseerd krijgen is een nieuw imperatief met een eigen logica, beperkend maar tegelijk bevrijdend; het geknutsel met kunstenaarsstatuten helpt niet om zich los te wrikken uit opgelegde vernauwingen in haar creatieve vrijheid; tentoonstellingen en projecten allerhande stapelen zich op, subsidiedossiers vreten tijd en energie, en de strijd met nieuwe -dure- materialen die haar verbeelding vorm moeten bieden blijkt iets uitdagender dan verwacht.
Te midden van dit alles straalt ze, van een soort ingetogen gloed. “Kunst is voor mij de meest intense manier van leven,” verklaart ze. De persoonlijke omstandigheden stellen de bedoeling van de schepper in haar scherper, meer dan ooit is haar werk een evidentie: het delen van schoonheid, het oog alert houden voor de fragiliteit van het mooie, het broze van het organische.
Tussen alle toekomstige plannen dit jaar viel me haar interventie in de Japanse tuin in Oostende op. De Japanse esthetiek sijpelt onmiskenbaar in haar werk door. De complexe organische vormen bieden vanop een afstand een eenduidig, eenvoudig beeld (Wabi-Sabi) dat intrinsiek een diepe harmonie (Wa) bevat. In haar tekeningen vallen de leegtes (Ma) samen met de levende invullingen, maar bovenal vormt haar praktijk en haar constante zoektocht naar de eigenschappen van de materialen die haar verbeelding vormgeven een ambachtelijk streven (Kogei) naar meesterschap...
Frederic Demeyer The Art couch
Joke Raes es tune céramiste particulièrement insolite. Sans doute parce qu’avant de s’intéresser à la terre, elle a été comédienne et metteusse en scène de théatre. En mouvement perpétuel, elle est animée par la quête permanente de nouvelles expérimentations.
….par Jean-Marc Dimanche
Joke Raes is an artist living and working in Belgium. Raes received her BFA from the Department of Fine Arts at Ghent University, in 2010, and her MFA at Ghent University Sint-Lucas. Furthermore, between 2015-2016 she attended a post-graduate program at HISK, the Higher Institute for Fine Arts, in Ghent. Joke Raes worked for several years as a designer and performer in theatres, and she gradually found her place in the visual arts following an under-water exhibition in the Red Sea and a residency among indigenous people living deep inside the Peruvian Amazon.
In 2017, Joke Raes realized her first large public art commission for the Alma General Hospital in Eeklo. In the summer of 2017, she developed her ceramic artwork as an artist in residence at Sundaymorning@EKWC, The Netherlands, and one year later, she participated in an artist residency in Arita, Saga, Japan. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally in multiple exhibitions.
https://www.ceramicsnow.org/2020/11/20/joke-raes/
The artistic care er of Joke Raes is anything but straightforward. At an early age, her parents enrolled her in art school. 'That was a wonderful place for me, where I had the freedom to develop in my own way,' she says. 'I was a very shy child, but at art school I was able to express myself wel!. Nat with words, but through the material in front of me.' She found that same freedom during her training in Word ArtDrama. Raes continued to work as a designer and performer in the theatre. However, after training at LUCA School of Arts and the Higher Institute of Fine Arts, bath in Ghent, she found her place in the art scene. 'I realised that I didn't want to be a performing actor but wanted to create of my own.' Her artistic focus shifted from performance to the visual arts and exhibitions, bath at home and abroad, began to follow one another in rapid succession. Just as her artistic trajectory is not straightforward, neither are her works. Her oeuvre consists of a varied range of works of art, with various materials and farms, aften worked out in sober pastel colours. She has already worked with drawings, watercolours, ceramics, live performances and sculptures, sometimes with natura! elements such as dried willow catkins. The result of this experimentation is a work that is complex yet accessible. In 2017 the artist realised her first major public art commission for the Genera! Hospita! Alma in Eeklo, in the meantime her works have been exposed nationally and internationally in several exhibitions.
https://imagicasa.be/en/story/imagicasa-spring-2021-in-stores-now
GENT, TOKYO – De jonge Oost-Vlaamse kunstenares Joke Raes, die in eigen land en in eigen provincie al veel referenties op haar naam heeft staan, maakt momenteel het mooie weer in Japan. Ze mag er onder meer een project realiseren in de Belgische ambassade in Tokyo.
www.madeinoostvlaanderen.be, Karel Cambien17 april 2018
photo by Carla van de Puttelaar
Wie het atrium van het nieuwe ziekenhuis in Eeklo binnenloopt, zal ongetwijfeld de wandkleden bewonderen die vier verdiepingen overspannen. Een project van een dergelijke omvang is niet voor iedereen weggelegd. Joke Raes is duidelijk niet bang voor een avontuur.
2018.1.1, Daan Rau, Joke Raes, OKV 2018.1, kunstenaar, foto Saskia Vanderstichele
Wat een bespreking moest worden van een uitzonderlijk mooie tentoonstelling, is ondertussen een uitzonderlijk mooie herinnering geworden. Gelukkig konden we ‘Synergia’ in de Brugse Poortersloge nog bekijken in de laatste week dat het geopend was. Joke Raes en Jonas Vansteenkiste die samen een duotentoonstelling maken, dat riep aanvankelijk wat vragen op bij ons. Meer verschillend kunnen kunstenaars niet zijn, toch? Maar ze maken de titel van hun tentoonstelling helemaal waar.
Article by Frederic Demeyer The Art couch
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De tekeningen, installaties en sculpturen van Joke Raes ontstaan schijnbaar moeiteloos. Kom je dichterbij dan merk je dat haar werk bol staat van de detaillering...
https://www.kunstletters.be/
https://issuu.com/kunstletters/docs/190311-kl_5_web-los
page 42 -43
Van het theater tot het Amazonewoud, van Japan tot een atelier in Gent: het artistieke parcours van kunstenares Joke Raes is allerminst rechtlijnig te noemen. Met een grote nieuwsgierigheid naar de band tussen mens en natuur bewandelt ze een pad even fascinerend en veelvormig als haar kunstwerken. We spreken haar in haar atelier terwijl we samen het buitenkunstwerk voor Destelheide “stekel” per “stekel” bij elkaar lijmen.
https://www.destelheide.be/expo-joke-raes https://issuu.com/destelheide/docs/adj_180218_infomagazine_januari-april
