About the Artist
I’m Jill Jacobs, an abstract metal sculptor based in Massachusetts. I have an undying passion for bending, cutting, and welding steel into geometric and organic vessels. Through shape and line, I explore human connection, how we form values, the power of choice, and how we contend with change. I play with the dichotomy of fragile forms sculpted with rigid materials, reflecting how malleability and continued curiosity can enrich life.
I was born, and currently reside, in Massachusetts. In 2021, I moved out of the city of Somerville to a woodsy New England acre. There, I converted my garage into a functional metalworking studio, where I sculpt today.
My avidity for art developed at a very young age, grown from inquisitiveness and a transportive imagination. Along with an interest in pen & ink illustration and photography, I worked with paper, clay and baling wire throughout my childhood. While earning my undergraduate degree at the University of Delaware, I discovered a love for sculpting with metal. My work is founded in ideals of composition and lighting learned through photography, and its intersection with my study of medieval, existential, Greek, Indian, and metaphysical philosophies. Through my art, I fortify my own philosophical perspectives.
My early work consists of 100 uniquely shaped vessels. This practice taught me many of the ways to bend and roll metal without the use of heat. These vessels constitute a shape language out of which my current and continuous creations evolve.
I’ve concurrently built a career in visual design, focused in marketing and branding. My design work and sculpture inspire each other through the development of bespoke shapes and patterns, color, and compositional balance.
For me, art and all other facets of life are deeply intertwined. Reading, time in nature, conversations, and supplemental creative practices, generate inspiration and ideas that keep me excited about the creation process.
Curriculum Vitae
Exhibitions
2024 Thread, Sculpture at Maudslay, Newburyport, MA (in collaboration with Rebekah Lord Gardiner)
2024, Sculpture 2024, Arts League of Lowell, Lowell, MA
2024 Variations, Marblehead Arts Association, Marblehead, MA, 2nd place award
2023-2024 Eighth Annual Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Newburyport Art Association, Newburyport, MA
2023 Fracture, Sculpture at Maudslay, Newburyport, MA
2022 Intersect, Sculpture at Maudslay, Newburyport, MA (in collaboration with Rebekah Lord Gardiner)
2015 Lynn Sharpe Honors Exhibition, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE
2015 Art in the Garden, Clark Garden, Newark, DE, 1st place award
2014 The Meaning of Light, Kitchen Gallery, Wilmington, DE
2013 Art in the Garden, Clark Garden, Newark, DE
2012 Passanten, LoBe Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Publications
2023 Making Problems to Solve Podcast: Cut, Bend, Weld. Persist (S1 E75)
2015 Best of Photography, Photographer’s Forum
Awards & Grants
2024 2nd Place Award, Variations, juried exhibition, Marblehead Arts Association, Marblehead, MA
2015 1st Place Award, Art in the Garden, juried exhibition, Newark, DE
2015 Finalist, Best of Photography, Photographer’s Forum
Education
2015 Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Delaware, concentration in Sculpture and Photography, minor in Philosophy