Jaco Kruger

Whether it is as an Artist, innovator, designer or entrepreneur, Jaco Kruger is something of a maverick. Never prepared to settle for the conventional, his vision is always to produce something unique that will change the status quo and make what many thought to be impossible, more than feasible.

Born in Pretoria, he moved to the Western Cape when his father was appointed director of the Rupert Art Foundation in Stellenbosch.

With no formal art education, he ‘grew up’ in his father’s office (a gallery) where he fell in love with all forms of art despite being colour blind. He was drawn to sculptures in particular and his father would encourage him to touch the bronze works in the gallery. He learned that touch was a sense that should be used to enjoy 3D art to its fullest. Today, Jaco still sculpts with his mind and endeavours to make his sculptures interactive and invite people to touch and feel his artwork. 

He remembers the moment he made his first sculpture – he was only 15 years old when he created a face from his school’s blackboard chalk using a paperclip. His mother still proudly displays three of those little original chalk sculptured that she framed.

Jaco has produced art throughout his life. As a young adult. He would gift friends with sculptures made from tile cement from construction sites. In 2004, he cast his first bronze, but it took another 10 years before he returned to bronze casting, a passion which has morphed into a second career.