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Max Jacobs

socio-social , sculpture , printing (3D) while , Digital technology , Conceptual , sculpting , Analytical

Max Jacobs is an artist who uses a unique approach to sculpting. He takes inspiration from art history and Western religion to create works that criticize and reflect on societal stigmas, personal experiences, and critical discourses.
Jacobs uses the combination of digital sculpting and 3D printing to bring his sculptures to life. This combination of digital and tactile art challenges the way viewers perceive sculpture and redefines its essence in the modern era.
Each of Jacobs' pieces is a dialogue between the past and present, a testament to the enduring power of sculpture as a medium of exploration and expression.

Prince of the Vatican
Prince of the vatican - September 2025 - This sculpture shows a cardinal. Cardinals are often called the princes of the Vatican, elevated above ordinary people. Yet they are still human. This work makes that visible: the older cardinal holds his smartphone in a posture we all recognize. It is the awkward, slightly comical stance of the elderly using technology never designed for their aging hands. In that moment, the cardinal is no different from my grandfather, a veterinarian. The titles they hold, the rank they stand on in the Church, these mean nothing in the end. The grandeur collapses into absurdity.
Proto
Proto - March 2025 - “Proto” is my imagined form of a god—not the deity defined in religious texts, but a being far older, more alien, and unbound by the human need to see itself reflected in the divine. Raised Christian but now agnostic, I was deeply struck by the biblical descriptions of angels: not gentle, winged beings, but cosmic and monstrous forces beyond comprehension. This sculpture stems from that space—between belief and disbelief, between awe and fear. It is my interpretation of what a god might be if stripped of human projection. It's not beautiful in the classical sense, but perhaps truer in its unknowability. The figure is seated in a meditative pose—calm, still, yet haunting. Its head, which I call a Proto Skull, is not a skull in the traditional sense, but a preface to one—an embryonic suggestion of what might eventually become a human face. But there are no eyes, mouth, or ears. Why would a god need them? Its body reflects the tension of familiarity and otherness. It bears limbs and hands, yet its anatomy is distorted, stretched, and unfinished—bones that seem to pierce the skin, proportions that feel wrong but deliberate. The god is humanoid in outline but fundamentally unknowable in essence. The entire sculpture was conceived digitally, composed of twenty separate parts, and eventually fused into one. It was realized physically through 3D printing, translating the digital concept into tangible form. This process of fragmentation and unification echoes the sculpture's own symbolism: the transition from potential to form, from scattered essence to singular presence. Though deeply personal, “Proto” is not meant to dictate meaning. Embedded within its form are symbolic elements, left deliberately open for interpretation. It invites the viewer to reflect on their own ideas of divinity, of origins, of what it means to believe—or not believe—in something greater than ourselves.
Hubris. 2024 - 3D printing
Series 1 - Deathlessness -Digital Render 2024
Series 1 - Eternal embrace - Digital render 2024
My Own Goliath: A Fragmented Reckoning 2023 - Exposed at HAL curated by Herman Lamers October
My Own Goliath - Exposed at HAL curated by Herman Lamers September
Improbable Papacy - 3D printed sculpture - 2023

Big Art 2024

Date:
Location: Slotervaart ziekenhuis

Big Art is an annual exhibition of larger works. It has a diverse range that goes through a selection in advance.
Max presented his restoration work of Pope Johanna here

https://bigart.nu/

Pavilioen

Date:
Location: Brielselaan 157, 3081 AC Rotterdam
In association with: Jake Kelly

I was invited by Jake Kelly an artist who gave an art performance in Paviljoen aan het water in Rotterdam. Where he provided dinners for a month and combined this with art. Here I showed a work that I had realized that summer.

https://www.paviljoenaanhetwater.com/

Het Archief Robert Fruinstraat Beeldentuin

Date:
Location: Robertfruinstraat 52

The outdoor area of ​​the Archives building has been turned into a sculpture park. The images are changed and adjusted throughout the year.

https://hilton-art-lab.com/

Bachelor Beeldende kunst

Date:
Location: Willem de Kooning

Completed my bachelor's degree in Visual Arts

This artist has no awards yet.