Atelier Van Lieshout

Bronze
75 x 78 x 218 cm

Embrace is an organically shaped sculpture, that doubles as a lamp. The work shows three figures embracing, enveloping, merging and becoming one form.  A tribal totem for worship that is also an element of van Lieshout’s New Tribal Labyrinth series.

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Aluminium
170 x 100 x 102 cm

Humanoid (2014) invites people to see the human soul in natural and manmade objects. This sculpture is the seed of thought for the larger public installation Humanoids (2019), which is permanently installed in the Collins Canal Park in Miami.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass
60 x 80 x 200 cm

Steel
182,5 x 115 x 60 cm

In this series of Atomic lamps, Atelier Van Lieshout evokes the energy created by the atom splitting, paradoxically serving comfort while posing a threat to the planet’s safety. It recomposes the light source with a spatial geography of cylindrical volumes in folded sheet steel cut in different sections. Using this system of mobile pendulums or unwavering volumes, it renews the art of physically spreading light waves, determining the beams’ direction by calculating the segment and the height. It is the director of a spectacular light show in space using magic and the chasing-projector effect, like on stage.

More info via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Fiberglass
400 x 400 x 100 cm

Steel
33 x 30 x 172 cm

Constructed of heavy steel plates, Jewel celebrates industry and Brutalism, the architectural movement defined by exposed concrete and blocky, geometric forms. It is a functional sculpture, and forms part of AVL’s Nouveau Brutalism series.

“It’s about man’s most primeval needs” – Joep van Lieshout

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Bronze
33 x 29 x 25 cm

Friends is part of the “New Tribal Labyrinth”-series. This series of works reflects on our extremely advanced and complex society, in which over-consumption and limited raw materials play a crucial role. In the near future, this contraposition will see an emergence of various new cultures. Once supplies are exhausted society will see a harshening of relations between people and an increase of their survival instinct. The question is whether such radical changes, which are coupled with violence but which may also lead to a new improved society, are good or bad.
Where groups of people start organizing themselves in tribes instead of countries and nationalities, a new tribal world order will occur. In the meantime AVL will create objects, installations and equipment for this imaginary tribe: monuments to be worshipped, cannibalistic sacrificial equipment, daily objects and designs.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass, leather
108 x 80 x 75 cm

The title of this chair is a corruption of the architect Le Corbusier. Joep van Lieshout: ‘Actually, this work is a badly executed Le Corbusier. I stared with the best intentions and with a really clean and neat work in mind, but unfortunately rounded forms kept on creeping in.’

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass
190 x 125 x 120 cm

For the 2009 series of furniture, Joep van Lieshout choose the human figure as starting point. Sculptures have been transformed by adding just a few items that changed them into furniture pieces. On one side furniture has been made out of human sculptures (the bodysofa) on the other side prints of people are used for several pieces (fossils, liquor man). The results were not designed but the process dictated the outcome of this furniture. Body Sofa, 2009 Fat Bastard, 2009 Liquor Master, 2009

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Mixed media
330 x 220 x 120 cm

For the 2009 series of furniture, Joep van Lieshout choose the human figure as starting point. Sculptures have been transformed by adding just a few items that changed them into furniture pieces. On one side furniture has been made out of human sculptures (the bodysofa) on the other side prints of people are used for several pieces (fossils, liquor man). The results were not designed but the process dictated the outcome of this furniture.

Body Sofa, 2009

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Mixed media
Diverse measurements

The fossil series consists of several chairs, chaise longues and sofas. The fossils are reminiscent or recall a primitive shape, half natural, half manmade. They have an outline that vaguely looks like a remnant of a human shape or a body. Like a fossil, these nomadic pieces reveal the identity of the pre-historic host but also resemble and may be seen as rocks or volcanic stone. The fossils are provocative and thoughtful sculptures, which function as sitting places or pieces of furniture, inspiring visitors to nestle and offer an interesting place to gather, read, have a pick-nick, and dream away with the movement of the clouds or the sounds of the city.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

“Perhaps the artist would be interested to know that the shapes illicit images of the lynching history in the United States. For those of us of African descent, such images evoke a plethora of emotional responses. Although I am unable to physically live with the piece, it has already moved me as only artistic expression can. For this, I truly thank the artist!”

— Dr. Noreen Winningham, early childhood educator

Quote by Joep van Lieshout: “It can be seen as people hanging from or alternately growing from the tree – as punishment but also blossoming.”

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Nylon resin
41 x 32 x 12 cm

PappaMamma Lamp is a translation of the human reproductive process. It is an anatomical cross-section of the genital organs: the penis, the vagina, and the gestating fœtus. Light of life.

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Fiberglass
93 x 48 x 87 cm

Fertility Lamp is an example of AVL’s fascination with the human body. Imbued with the same sense of humour as many of their previous works, the oversized organ conjures up images of tribal fertility gods and male insecurities of size and performance. The proportions and the pose are exaggerated, abstracting the form to a comical level.

Fiberglass
130 x 120 x 200 cm

Family Lamp (2007) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Utopia‘, Château Saint-Maur, Saint Tropez (FR), 2022

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Bronze
180 x 95 x 85 cm

The Technocrat is a complex closed circuit of food, alcohol, excrement and energy. In this system, the human burgher is the cogwheel that generates thousands of litres of raw material to produce not only valuable biogas used for cooking but also an ‘Alcoholator’ distillery to keep the humans quiet and happy. The Technocrat consists of four parts that come with instructions. By following these instructions, anyone can learn to operate The Technocrat.

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Fiberglass
Edition of 10
50 x 40 x 60 cm

This small skull is inspired by the Study Skulls and other Skulls Joep van Lieshout made in the late nineties. Making use of the minimal space needed for the body to relax this unit opens out to reveal a room in which the user can escape the sensory clutter of modern life.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

This table with crockery was designed for the board room of SlaveCity. The plates on the table are illustrated with scenes from different departments in SlaveCity, such as Human Resources department, Energy production department, Motivation and relaxation department and Organ transplant department.

Fiberglass
150 x 150 x 165 cm

AVL Workskull is designed for large offices as a secluded place, where employees can work alone undisturbed, have more privacy for phone calls or retreat from the world.

AVL Workskull (2005) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Roof Installation’, ROOF-A, Rotterdam (NL), 2021

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Pig Toilet
90 x 100 x 90 cm

Such pig toilets are still used in many parts of the world. People defecate in the toilet in the front; pigs happily eat the excrement from the trough at the back. The work was part of a theatre play about the different aspects of faeces and how it is dealt with. If anything, art is like shit: once an artwork comes out of the artist’s body, the work usually cannot be touched or changed anymore.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Mixed media
Diverse measurements

Contemporary design practice increasingly depends upon high tech. Designs are drawn on the computer and made by means of rapid prototyping. Once the prototype is complete, the object is manufactured far away in another country with cheap labour and then comes back. To counter this distant way of designing, AVL created Bad Furniture in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau. For Bad Furniture, the designer and the producer are one and the same person. Both the steel and the wood have been handcrafted. Love, tools and materials are combined; shape and passion go hand in hand.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Steel
60 x 98 x 105 cm

A crib made in the Art Nouveau style; it can be secured with padlock.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass
Diverse measurements

For Amsterdam’s Lloyd Hotel, which was designed by the MVRDV architectural team, AVL made a series of bathroom units for individual hotel rooms, along with two special music chambers: one for rock, the other for classical music. Both chambers are extra-large: family- or orgy-size.

Location: Lloyd Hotel, Amsterdam (NL)

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Wood, steel
Various works

The series of sports equipment, Sport Nouveau, are the Art Nouveau answer to  the undesigned apparatuses in Sportopia, the installation that AVL made especially for the Sao Paulo Biennale last year. Sportopia measures six by twenty-three meters and consists of three different departments. The first is a sporting area with a variety of body-building equipment. On the other side of this installation, there is the sex department with equipment that fulfils a wide range of sexual needs, from group sex to bestiality. And on the upper floor, one finds the department dedicated to communal living and utopia.

Sport Nouveau (2003) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Design Art’, Kunsthal, Rotterdam (NL), 2014
‘Das Haus’, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (DE), 2008 – 2009

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Wood, steel
800 x 140 x 300 cm

These bunk beds can efficiently store up to 1000 burghers, who produce the biogas in The Technocrat.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass

Uritory is a unisex amenity. The angle of the toilet bowl is positioned in such a way that both women and men can easily use the toilet while standing up. Ecologically-friendly, Uritory is linked to a small biogas installation. A storage space for the toilet brush has been built in the side of the bowel.

Fiberglass
700 x 750 x 180 cm

The Interpolis Insurance company asked AVL to design a half-open meeting place for 14 people; the company did not want to build a separate room. AVL’s solution was to create a central table, surrounded by a sculpture group. The sculpted fibreglass figures represent the employees of an average company and their lives: businessmen shaking hands and discussing a portfolio; a hard-working manager, a good director pushing a disabled person in a wheelchair; gossiping office assistants; a family and a depressed worker.

Location: Interpolis Tilburg (NL)

Wood, steel
110 x 100 x 76 cm

Many people can take advantage of the poor person in the pillory.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Leather, steel
62 x 62 x 90 cmm

While designed by AVL, this chair is produced and distributed by the Lensvelt Furniture Company. AVL designed the chair after being horrified by the available office furniture. It’s nice to create a temporary storage space for the backside of the body.

You can buy your own AVL Office Chair via our webshop (webshop hyperlinken met https://ateliervanlieshoutshop.com/)

Leather, fiberglass
160 x 85 x 120 cm

Walking around inside a museum can be tiring; there are few comforts, let alone luxuries, apart from the artworks. Bonnefanten Carts provide a solution: the museum visitor can sit in the mechanized wheelchair and use the joystick to tour the museum at slower or faster speeds. The cart is stocked with cold beer and champagne; the armrest has a special bowl for peanuts. The chair automatically rises and lowers to get a closer view of paintings. After touring around, the user can park and slumber in front of his favourite artworks. The carts are designed for the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht; AVL believes that all museums should be equipped with such facilities. Collection Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht

Fiberglass
150 x 150 x 300 cm

A double-decker toilet for environmentally friendly composting. Faecal matter falls into the elongated container. The Composttoilet is a very low-tech yet very efficient way of recycling human waste. Straw, which is thrown in the toilet bowl, helps the composting process; the straw’s hollow stems bring oxygen into the faeces, thus helping aerobic bacteria to grow.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass

Location: Stadion Galgenwaard, FC Utrecht (NL)

Wood
50 x 50 x 71 cm

AVL artworks form the basis of AVL design pieces, made in unlimited editions in small factories, or in special editions in AVL’s workshop, AVL Shaker furniture is a good example of this. Already designed for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1998, AVL Shaker furniture is based on furniture made by the Shakers, a religious community from England that lived in the Northern parts of the USA from the end of the eighteenth century.

You can buy your own AVL Office Chair via our webshop (webshop hyperlinken met https://ateliervanlieshoutshop.com/)

Wood
240 x 200 x 280 cm

King and Queen Size look like poor cousins to this bed, which can expand horizontally and even vertically into multilevel bunk beds. The simple modular system is infinitely reproducible with a multiplication of the basic 1.20 m frame. Like desire, this bed knows no limits.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass
355 x 540 x 390 cm

Despite its adversity to museum architecture, AVL took on the challenge of building an extension for sanitary spaces at Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Located in the glassed-in passage that links the main building to the museum restaurant, AVL’s toilet unit takes the shape of a large penis, which appears to penetrate the glass passage. The penis head, which provides an entrance to the restaurant pavilion from the museum garden is on one side of the passage; on the other are the two testicles, one for the women’s room and one for the men’s. While the interior is a light shade of green, the exterior has been covered in an army-like camouflage print, which blends into the surrounding museum and gardens.

Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Fiberglass
55 x 40 x 50 cm

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com