Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1960 Utrecht, Netherlands

Year of Migration to the UK: 1981

Biography

Contemporary artist and ceramicist Bouke de Vries was born in Utrecht, Netherlands in 1960. He attended the Design Academy in Eindhoven, graduating in 1981. In the same year, he immigrated to London, enrolled at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, and graduated in 1982. After working in the fashion industry for nearly a decade, he retrained at West Dean College of Arts, Design, Craft & Conservation, from 1989 to 1992, with a focus on ceramics conservation and restoration. For nearly two decades post-graduation, he worked as a self-employed ceramicist and conservator. His day-to-day role as a private conservator often involved grappling with concepts of value and worth. As he remarked, ‘The Venus de Milo is venerated despite losing her arms, but when a Meissen muse loses a finger, she is rendered virtually worthless.’ (de Vries, Official Page).

De Vries rose to prominence as a leading ceramics conservator in London, separately creating artworks from fragments left by clients. These pieces quickly captured the attention of collectors. His current art practice often involves repurposing shattered ceramics, placing them in new settings and thus renewing their existence and advancing their historical narratives. De Vries highlights the beauty of destruction, choosing to transform broken ceramics, not by repairing but by redefining them. His conservator’s touch introduces new values and narratives, obscuring their origins and making the pieces poignantly biographical. In some works, he draws from 17th and 18th-century Dutch botanical still life traditions, endowing his objects with the vanitas and memento mori symbolism of those eras. Meanwhile, his more figurative pieces portray scenes of contemporary life.

De Vries has a penchant for history and imperfection. He employs a surrealist, and often self-deprecating, aesthetic to reinterpret traditional forms of sculpture, such as marble busts. A notable example is his piece for the group exhibition, Vanitas: The Transience of Earthly Pleasures shown at Frieze 2010. This work, a bust of Mao Zedong composed of thousands of hand-made skulls, is a reference to the numerous deaths attributed to the dictator. However, while many of de Vries's works touch on political themes, not all do. In 2011, he collaborated with jeweller Annoushka Ducas on the project, Precious. This exhibition, held at Art at Annoushka in London, showcased Annoushka’s jewellery in tandem with Bouke’s reclaimed ceramic sculptures. The two artists shared motifs such as butterflies, ensuring a harmonious partnership. His major projects include War & Pieces, an installation displayed at the Holburne Museum in Bath in 2012. Supported by Arts Council of Great Britain funding, the exhibition explored narratives around historical banquets held before royal battles in Europe and featured ceramics and porcelain from the Holburne collection. The centrepiece was a ceramic mushroom cloud soaring from a ballroom table. This exhibition later toured both domestically and internationally. In the same year, de Vries crafted a ceramic installation for Pallant House Gallery’s 300th anniversary, using the Gallery’s extensive Bow porcelain collection dating from 1747–76. This collection was originally produced at the Bow factory in east London, now the site of the Olympic Park. In 2022, de Vries unveiled a recent work, Fragments of Memory, in the Japanese Garden courtyard at University College London (UCL). Commissioned by UCL’s Public Art programme, this bronze sculpture draws influence from UCL’s history and Japan’s historical divisions and global unrest. Through an artistic approach that embraces imperfections, it merges ancient and modern artistic techniques with Japan’s seismic preparedness, exploring themes of trauma, resilience, and beauty. De Vries’ 2023 exhibition Visions in Porcelain: A Rake’s Progress displayed at Sir John Soane's Museum in London, showcased the deterioration of eight vases, paralleling the decline of William Hogarth’s anti-hero, Tom Rakewell, as depicted in the series of paintings entitled A Rake's Progress housed in the Museum.

Bouke de Vries currently lives and works in London, England. His works are housed in UK public collections including Aberdeen Art Gallery and National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Related books

Katie Treggiden, Broken: Mending and Repair in a Throwaway World (Brussels: Ludion, 2023)
Laura Gray, 'Ceramics on Show: Domesticity, Destruction and Manifestations of Risk-taking', in Christie Brown, Julian Stair, Clare Twomey, eds., Contemporary Clay and Museum Culture: Ceramics in the Expanded Field (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016), pp. 57-65
Vincent Lieber, Alexia Ryf and James Beighton, Bouke de Vries: Fragments (Nyon: Château de Nyon, 2014)
James Beighton, Bouke de Vries: War & Pieces (Bath: Holburne Museum, 2012)
Simon Olding, Bouke de Vries: Stairwell Installation (Chichester: Pallant House Gallery, 2012)
Miles Chapman, Pieces: Bouke de Vries (London: Bouke Art Ltd, 2010)

Public collections

Related organisations

Central Saint Martins (student )

Selected exhibitions

Visions in Porcelain: A Rake’s Progress (solo exhibition), Sir John Soane's Museum, London (2023)
War and Pieces, Hillwood House, Washington DC, USA (2023)
Fragments of Memory, University College London, London (2022)
Fractured Images (solo exhibition), Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2017)
The Golden Box (solo exhibition), Croome Court, Worcester (2016)
Shared (group show), Somerset House, London (2015)
Fragments (solo exhibition), Chateau de Nyon, Nyon (2014)
War and Pieces (solo exhibition), Holbourne Museum, Bath (2012)
Vanitas/Contemporary Reflections, Moscow MOMA, Moscow (2012)
Precious (in collaboration with Annoushka Ducas), Art at Annoushka, London (2011)
Vanitas: The Transience of Earthly Pleasures (group fair), Frieze, London (2010)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Bouke de Vries]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Bouke de Vries artist