Jana Van Ongevalle: the artist who finds poetry in the logic of systems

Jana Van Ongevalle

Belgian artist transforms abstract structures into ceramics, drawing, and installation, questioning the boundaries between function, form, and humor.

Belgian visual artist Jana Van Ongevalle has spent more than a decade building a singular body of work that challenges the separation between art and design, between function and form, and between control and imbalance. She studied painting, sculpture, glass, and ceramics at LUCA School of Arts, one of Belgium’s largest and most respected art and design institutions, headquartered in Brussels with campuses across several cities in Flanders. Affiliated with KU Leuven, LUCA is known for training artists who move fluidly across disciplines such as design, fine arts, audiovisual media, and applied arts. It is within that environment of intersection between craft tradition and contemporary experimentation that Van Ongevalle’s thinking developed and continues to be nourished. Her practice departs from everyday systems she encounters in the world around her, sports fields, spatial grids, and the forms of functional objects, transforming them into autonomous forms that are slightly off, slightly crooked, and almost ironic.

Jana van Ongevalle

Van Ongevalle combines her studio practice with teaching, a choice that reflects the reflective and methodical nature of her work. Her process begins with the observation of structures already present in the world: the lines of a soccer field, the geometry of a shelf, the outline of a household utensil. By stripping these elements from their original context, she frees them from their immediate function and reinstates them as abstract systems, open to reinterpretation.

Two strands, one logic

Her practice unfolds in two interconnected strands. In the first, she develops functional objects in which use serves as a starting point rather than a goal, pieces that evoke utility without necessarily fulfilling it. In the second, she creates drawings and installations that translate abstracted rules into autonomous sculptural and ceramic forms.

It is in this second strand that her investigation into the limits of systems becomes most visible. The geometries she proposes are heavy, slightly deformed, or off-balance. They are forms that reveal the precise moment when a logic can no longer sustain itself, when the ruler gives way, when the right angle falters, when symmetry slips.

Despite the structural rigor that guides her production, Van Ongevalle’s work carries a subtle sense of humor. The displacement of familiar forms and rules does not produce aggressive estrangement but rather an invitation to the imagination. The viewer is called upon to fill in the spaces the system left open.

Exhibition history

Van Ongevalle’s growing presence in the Belgian and Flemish art circuit reflects the recognition her work has earned. In 2025, she participated in multiple group shows, including Natte Tenen in Ghent and Le Jeu et les Couleurs in Lendelede, and was part of Untangled Practices, an initiative by Designpunt and the Design Museum Gent during the Wonder festival in Kortrijk. Her work was also highlighted in the design section of the newspaper De Morgen and by gallerist Marijke in Kunstletters.

In 2024, she was selected among the 25 best graduation projects by Flanders DC for De Designklas van 2024, one of the most significant recognitions for emerging Flemish creators. That same year, she took part in the group exhibitions Wonderwall and Mimesis, both at the 4n20 space in Kortrijk, and in In Vorm at gallery R121. Her work was also displayed in a storefront window on the Meir in Antwerp, in partnership with LUCA and the magazine Juttu, and received a mention in De Standaard magazine.

Prior to that, in 2022, she was part of the group show Tout de Retour at BLANCO in Ghent. In 2021, she participated in A Deux le Jeu, a mirrored exhibition with artists Judith Herman, Clara Verbeke, and Liesbeth Van Heuverswijn, which also resulted in the publication of a book of the same name, co-produced with Van Heuverswijn and the publisher Retour.

Her trajectory also includes exhibitions dating back to 2013, among them a two-person show alongside Nena Shaw at Croxhapox in Ghent in 2014 and a mention in Knack Weekend in 2018 in the feature Design, dit is Belgisch, an editorial recognition that affirms her place within contemporary Belgian design.

Between structure and failure

What makes Jana Van Ongevalle’s work particularly relevant today is her ability to find poetry precisely where systems fail. At a time when artistic production frequently celebrates technical perfection or immediate visual impact, she chooses to investigate the moment of hesitation, when logic trembles, when the form almost falls but does not.

It is in that unstable balance, between control and accident, between function and fiction, that her work finds its most distinctive voice.