JAN ERNST

Jan Ernst (Born in 1990 in Kroonstad, South Africa) is a multidisciplinary functional designer based in Cape Town, South Africa. Drawing from nature as inspiration, Jan Ernst creates elegant and alluring ceramic designs that delicately balance form and function. For him, ceramics is linked to exploration, experimentation and finding equilibrium in composition, structure and materiality.

Jan Ernst by COLLECTIONAL dubai

Jan Ernst by COLLECTIONAL dubai

Jan Ernst is a multidisciplinary creative specializing in functional art and spatial design using clay as his main medium. The work is driven by his fascination with natural structures such as corals, fungi, and rock formations. His organic designs stem from his abstract understanding of form and space influenced by his background in architecture, his connection with the natural world, and his South African heritage.

Jan Ernst by COLLECTIONAL dubai

Jan Ernst by COLLECTIONAL dubai

With an educational background in architecture, Ernst’s main medium is clay, through which he brings to life gracefully gorgeous organic designs. Although his formal journey into ceramics began later in life, the little mud houses and clay villages made in his childhood ignited a passion he would later pursue.

Tactility, peculiarity, decay and delight are all significant principles that hold the work of the Cape Town-based artist. He doesn’t shy away from contradiction, durability and nuance are handled with great finesse.