Joke L.C. van Beetem

Joke L.C. van Beetem (1966) creates sculptures in natural stone.

Her visual language is predominantly geometric-abstract.

She divides her time between studios in Den Dolder, the Netherlands, and Pietrasanta, Italy. Joke shapes stone—often Italian marble—into sculptural forms. Straight lines, surface divisions, geometric shapes, reflections, tilts, and rotations are characteristic of her work.

Her sculptures reflect her interest in architecture, industrial design, geometry, and various abstract art movements. She is also inspired by constructivism and minimalist art. Her creative process begins with a design on paper or a scale model. From there, she sculpts the final piece directly from a single, custom-cut block of stone.

Joke's work focuses on the art of precision, structure, simplicity, and order—an expression of rational thought. Most of her sculptures are not meant to refer to reality. The meaning of each piece lies solely within the sculpture itself.

Through this approach, Joke creates compositions of geometric patterns for reliefs in a strict formal language of line play, surface division, contrast, rhythm, reflection, and rotation.

Joke is a member of the Utrecht Stone Carvers Guild “Letter Tijd.”