JON JACOBSEN IS A MULTIMEDIA ARTIST WHOSE WORK EXPLORES THE VISCERAL FRICTION BETWEEN BIOLOGICAL DECAY AND THE STATIC SYSTEMS OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD.
BIO
Jon Jacobsen is a Chilean multimedia artist whose practice explores the intersection of digital photography, temporary assemblage, and systemic waiting. For over twenty years, his work has focused on the logic of extraction—a methodical dissection of both physical matter and digital interfaces to reveal hidden narratives. A pioneer in the use of the .GIF as a contemporary art medium, Jacobsen utilizes digital manipulation to create multinarrative systems where the human body is represented through its material surrogates.
Jacobsen’s work draws from vernacular Chilean traditions, specifically the Animita and the Tijerales, to examine how ordinary objects function as anchors for identity when institutional frameworks fail. His process involves the minutely arranged construction of 3D temporary sculptures from discarded materials, which are then flattened into two-dimensional monuments through a high-resolution digital process.
His work has been exhibited internationally at the Museo de Artes Visuales (MAVI) in Chile, Somerset House in London, and PULSE Contemporary Art Fair in Miami. In 2017, he was an artist-in-residence at SHOWstudio (London), mentored by Nick Knight and supported by the British Council. His imagery and research have been featured in Vogue.it, WIRED, Dazed, Juxtapoz, and i-D. Currently based in Portugal, Jacobsen is developing Bound Matter, an ongoing series documenting the 1,920-day administrative suspension of the migrant body through a meticulous study of found objects and global commodities.
Jacobsen’s work draws from vernacular Chilean traditions, specifically the Animita and the Tijerales, to examine how ordinary objects function as anchors for identity when institutional frameworks fail. His process involves the minutely arranged construction of 3D temporary sculptures from discarded materials, which are then flattened into two-dimensional monuments through a high-resolution digital process.
His work has been exhibited internationally at the Museo de Artes Visuales (MAVI) in Chile, Somerset House in London, and PULSE Contemporary Art Fair in Miami. In 2017, he was an artist-in-residence at SHOWstudio (London), mentored by Nick Knight and supported by the British Council. His imagery and research have been featured in Vogue.it, WIRED, Dazed, Juxtapoz, and i-D. Currently based in Portugal, Jacobsen is developing Bound Matter, an ongoing series documenting the 1,920-day administrative suspension of the migrant body through a meticulous study of found objects and global commodities.
statement
My gaze was formed by the logic of extraction. Born into a lineage of butchers, fishermen, and miners, I inherited a methodical need to understand the world through what is pulled from the inside. My practice is a double-edge knife: one side is a rigorous, analytical dissection of complex systems; the other is an intuitive, multinarrative reconstruction of the physical world.
My first interaction with life beyond the isolation of a small town was through the low-fidelity lenses of early webcams. These interfaces functioned as a digital "skin"—a blurred layer I had to look through to find the "guts" of a person. This initiated a lifelong obsession with showing the inside and outside simultaneously, treating the digital image as an extraction of a presence that is both intimate and spectral.
In the studio, my work is a physical battle with gravity. I assemble precarious, diagonal compositions that draw from two Chilean traditions of construction: the Animita (a roadside shrine for the departed) and the Tijerales. The latter is a ritualized "topping out" ceremony rooted in prehistory and repurposed through colonialism, marking the moment a structure becomes self-sustaining. By building these skeletal "roofs" from discarded objects, I am performing a ceremony for a life in suspension—placing a symbolic tree or "flag" atop a construction that the state has halted. Through the camera, I flatten these unstable, temporary 3D sculptures into enlarged two-dimensional monuments, using the no-gravity of the digital space to grant sovereignty to materials that the physical world has rejected.
The urgency of this practice is anchored in 1,920 days of waiting during my legal limbo in Portugal. In the series Bound Matter, I document the friction between the cold data of the Republic and the mutable reality of survival. My assemblages function as forensic still lifes, constructed atop the same table where I eat and work—a domestic altar within a 45-square-meter perimeter. Here, discarded matter—Chilean copper, imported fruits, and industrial residues—are physically sutured together. These objects, sourced from different continents and assembled on this singular, multipurpose surface, become proxies for the immigrant experience: they are global commodities that transit borders with a freedom denied to the human subject. I use the logic of extraction to demand a visual record for the Anima caught in the bureaucratic loop, capturing the gap where biological life continues to pulse while the administrative system remains indifferent
My first interaction with life beyond the isolation of a small town was through the low-fidelity lenses of early webcams. These interfaces functioned as a digital "skin"—a blurred layer I had to look through to find the "guts" of a person. This initiated a lifelong obsession with showing the inside and outside simultaneously, treating the digital image as an extraction of a presence that is both intimate and spectral.
In the studio, my work is a physical battle with gravity. I assemble precarious, diagonal compositions that draw from two Chilean traditions of construction: the Animita (a roadside shrine for the departed) and the Tijerales. The latter is a ritualized "topping out" ceremony rooted in prehistory and repurposed through colonialism, marking the moment a structure becomes self-sustaining. By building these skeletal "roofs" from discarded objects, I am performing a ceremony for a life in suspension—placing a symbolic tree or "flag" atop a construction that the state has halted. Through the camera, I flatten these unstable, temporary 3D sculptures into enlarged two-dimensional monuments, using the no-gravity of the digital space to grant sovereignty to materials that the physical world has rejected.
The urgency of this practice is anchored in 1,920 days of waiting during my legal limbo in Portugal. In the series Bound Matter, I document the friction between the cold data of the Republic and the mutable reality of survival. My assemblages function as forensic still lifes, constructed atop the same table where I eat and work—a domestic altar within a 45-square-meter perimeter. Here, discarded matter—Chilean copper, imported fruits, and industrial residues—are physically sutured together. These objects, sourced from different continents and assembled on this singular, multipurpose surface, become proxies for the immigrant experience: they are global commodities that transit borders with a freedom denied to the human subject. I use the logic of extraction to demand a visual record for the Anima caught in the bureaucratic loop, capturing the gap where biological life continues to pulse while the administrative system remains indifferent
CV
SOLO
2022 | Burocrazia, CRU Gallery, Porto, Portugal.
2017 | Ekeko, Etage Projects. Copenhagen, Denmark.
2016 | Ekeko, Centro Cultural Providencia. Santiago, Chile.
2014 | Mapas, Sientoxciento Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago, Chile.
2017 | Ekeko, Etage Projects. Copenhagen, Denmark.
2016 | Ekeko, Centro Cultural Providencia. Santiago, Chile.
2014 | Mapas, Sientoxciento Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago, Chile.
BIENNIALS
2015 – 12th Biennial of New Media Art. MNAB. Santiago, Chile.
2013 – 5th Biennial of Design. CCEM. Santiago, Chile.
GROUP
2021 – ‘Night Projections’ – SHOWstudio – London, United Kingdom.
2021 – ‘1 000 058.o Aniversário da Arte’ – Círculo de Artes Plasticas. Coimbra. Portugal.
2018 – Colección Ca.Sa. Santiago, Chile.
2017 – “Animita” – Somerset House. London, United Kingdom.
2015 – “GIF-GIF-GAF” – Electromuseum Gallery. Moscow, Russia.
2015 – “Monsieur L’ordinateur” – Quartier Général Centre d’art Contemporain.
La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
2015 – “Arte Joven Contemporáneo” – Museo de Artes Visuales. Santiago, Chile.
2013 – “The solitary body: Self-portraiture In Contemporary Photography”.
MACT/CACT Arte Contemporanea. Ticino, Switzerland.
2012 – “Vanguardia Mistral” – Centro GAM. Santiago, Chile.
2009 – “Hombre” – Museo Nacional Vicuña Mackenna. Santiago, Chile.
2008 – “Amarillo Kaf’ak” – Maremagnum. Barcelona, Spain.
2006 – “Expoblogs” – National Library. Santiago, Chile.
2021 – ‘1 000 058.o Aniversário da Arte’ – Círculo de Artes Plasticas. Coimbra. Portugal.
2018 – Colección Ca.Sa. Santiago, Chile.
2017 – “Animita” – Somerset House. London, United Kingdom.
2015 – “GIF-GIF-GAF” – Electromuseum Gallery. Moscow, Russia.
2015 – “Monsieur L’ordinateur” – Quartier Général Centre d’art Contemporain.
La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
2015 – “Arte Joven Contemporáneo” – Museo de Artes Visuales. Santiago, Chile.
2013 – “The solitary body: Self-portraiture In Contemporary Photography”.
MACT/CACT Arte Contemporanea. Ticino, Switzerland.
2012 – “Vanguardia Mistral” – Centro GAM. Santiago, Chile.
2009 – “Hombre” – Museo Nacional Vicuña Mackenna. Santiago, Chile.
2008 – “Amarillo Kaf’ak” – Maremagnum. Barcelona, Spain.
2006 – “Expoblogs” – National Library. Santiago, Chile.
Media Coverage
2025 | Artist Feature, DSECTION Magazine.
2021 | “Digital Innovation in Editorial Beauty”, Sunday Times Style, UK.
2021 | “An Insider’s Guide to Chile’ Artist Feature. American Airlines
2019 | Artist Feature. LOVE Magazine.
2018 | Artist Feature | Sustainability in the Arts. VICE Media.
2017 | “Jon Jacobsen Explores Tension in Real Subjects”, Hi-Fructose Magazine
2016 | Artist Feature, Art Basel Miami Edition, The Cut Magazine.
2016 | “Jon Jacobsen’s Photography Comes Alive”, Juxtapoz Magazine
2016 | “GIFs Artists You Must Know”, Artist Feature. I-D Magazine.
2016 | “Ghostly and Surreal Human Expression in GIFs”, Artist Feature. Fubiz Media
2015 | “Our Freakish Cyborg Future Looks Like a Dali Painting”, WIRED Magazine.
2015 | “Anatomical GIFs Show the Internet Tearing Us Apart” VICE Media.
2015 | Chile Arte Joven, AAL Editions. Santiago, Chile.
2015 | Artist Interview, Arte Al Límite Magazine. Santiago, Chile.
2014 | “Jon Jacobsen’s New Perspective on Portraiture”. VICE Media.
2014 | “The Everyday Fantasies of Jon Jacobsen”. Iphoto+. Korea
2013 | “Surreal Photography: Creating The Impossible”, Routledge Editions
2011 | “Self-Portrait Photography”, Pixiq Editions. USA
2006 | “Portraits of a Generation”, Paula Magazine, Chile (Guest Photo Editor)
2021 | “Digital Innovation in Editorial Beauty”, Sunday Times Style, UK.
2021 | “An Insider’s Guide to Chile’ Artist Feature. American Airlines
2019 | Artist Feature. LOVE Magazine.
2018 | Artist Feature | Sustainability in the Arts. VICE Media.
2017 | “Jon Jacobsen Explores Tension in Real Subjects”, Hi-Fructose Magazine
2016 | Artist Feature, Art Basel Miami Edition, The Cut Magazine.
2016 | “Jon Jacobsen’s Photography Comes Alive”, Juxtapoz Magazine
2016 | “GIFs Artists You Must Know”, Artist Feature. I-D Magazine.
2016 | “Ghostly and Surreal Human Expression in GIFs”, Artist Feature. Fubiz Media
2015 | “Our Freakish Cyborg Future Looks Like a Dali Painting”, WIRED Magazine.
2015 | “Anatomical GIFs Show the Internet Tearing Us Apart” VICE Media.
2015 | Chile Arte Joven, AAL Editions. Santiago, Chile.
2015 | Artist Interview, Arte Al Límite Magazine. Santiago, Chile.
2014 | “Jon Jacobsen’s New Perspective on Portraiture”. VICE Media.
2014 | “The Everyday Fantasies of Jon Jacobsen”. Iphoto+. Korea
2013 | “Surreal Photography: Creating The Impossible”, Routledge Editions
2011 | “Self-Portrait Photography”, Pixiq Editions. USA
2006 | “Portraits of a Generation”, Paula Magazine, Chile (Guest Photo Editor)