The Art Gomplex Museum presents
Group Exhibition: "Wood as Muse" Dates: May 7 - September 3, 2017 Reception date: Sunday l:30
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3:30 PM May
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Guest Curators: Andy Moerlein and Donna Dodson
As arranged by Gontemporary Curator: Craig Bloodgood Participating artists: Amy Archam bau lt, http ://www. amyarcha m ba u lt. com/ Thomas Beale, http://www.tbeale.com/ Don na Dod son, r¡ruwv. d on nad od sona rtist. b logspot. com B reon Du n ga n, http ://www. a rtstra nd. com/a rtists/b reon-d u n iga n Vanessa German, http://pavelzoubok.com/artisUvanessa-german/ Pat Keck, http://www. patkeck.com/ Jen n ifer Maestre, http //www.jen n ife rmaestre. com/ Jason Midd lebrook, http ://jasonm idd lebrook. com/ Andy Moerlein, www. a ndymoerlein. blogspot.com Martin U lman, http ://www. roslindalestud io. com/ M ike Wrig ht, http ://scu lptorm ikewri g ht. com/ i
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Curatorial Statement Making art with wood is not an arbitrary decision. For the artists in this show, wood is theír muse and the source of their inspiration. Each artist has an affection for wood that comes from a very personal place. ln fine art, the mastery of materials and craft must serve the aesthetics of the work. We selected contemporary art for this exhibition that speaks through wood as its medium. We placed several different approaches to using wood in juxtaposition, bringing individual voices into focus. We see wood, as a medium, in the true sense of the word "an intervening substance or agency for transmitting or producing an effect." Each artist in the show approaches wood from a conceptual framework that yields surprising and divergent results.
-The Myth Makers, Donna Dodson & Andy Moerlein www.woodasm use. blogspot.com
Amy Archambault www.amyarchambault.com
Artist Statement The structural properties of wood and the value it possesses as a consfructive and decorative material is essential to my investigation of fabricated objects, my creation of "play-things", and the influence of a renovation-obsessed-culture on contemporary living. Adapting the role of the "renovator" in recent years, my visual lexicon has been saturated by the objects, tools, and equipment we acquire as "homeowners" and / or "home-improvers". I have absorbed a great deal of knowledge about the builder's space, the materials and objects that are associated with that space, and the many methods of fabrication, assembly, and finishing. Wood, the "go-to" material of my past chiefly for its structural dependency, has recently shifted into a source for expression, description and imitation. As one consumed by labor, better known to me as "the project", I search for adventure and delight by imagining visual and functional connections between a given task and the toys and games that defined my childhood. This nostalgic and oddly educational connection, synonymous to the way that a child engages in "pretend", transforms the shop into my stage, my practice into "play", and wood into my most adaptable prop.
Biography Amy Archambault received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, PA and BA in Studio Art I Psychology from the College of the Holy Cross, MA. Archambault's large-scale installations, sculptures and inspective mixed media drawings uncover playful and unconventional activations of sites and structures. Her complex and energetic installations incorporate both the material and the visual languages of athletic culture, childhood play and the "home improvement" / constructive domain. Recipient of the 2013 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship Grant (Sculpture / lnstallation) and member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery, MA, Archambault has exhibited her work throughout the Northeast. Archambault was most recently named the Boston Center for the Arts Artist in Residence. Her public interactive installation "inMotion: Memories of lnvented Play" was featured on the Boston Center for the Arts Plaza (Summer 2015) and earned her recognition in the Boston Globe. ln addition, Archambault participated in the ambitious "lsles Arts lnitiative" (Summer 2015) with her work being installed in Fort Warren (Georges lsland, Boston Harbor lslands, Boston, MA). Archambault's installation "Futile Ascent" was featured in a group exhibition of faculty artists, "Pulse", at the College of the Holy Cross, MA and additionally at GRIN Providence, Rl. Prior, her installation, "Live-work", was featured in a solo exhibition at 17 Cox, Beverly, MA in 2014. Archambault was recognized in Pulse Magazine for its "Up & Coming Local Artists" outlook in Central Massachusetts, 2012. She is currently Studio Supervisor / Lecturer at the College of the Holy Cross, MA.
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AMYARCHAMBAUTT WOOD AS A MUSE,2Ot7
t1l Reflect (2016)
Tx5x2inches African mahogan¡ birch plywood, cabinet handle, cotton candy and acid purple with silver gray diamond paracord
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Steødy (2016) 7 x7 x4 inches
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Poplar, canary wood, heavy duty black hinge, fireball paracord
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t3l Grasp (2016)
5x5x2inches Birch plywood, poplar, cabinet handles, fast paracord
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shîÍt (2oL4l Maple, door hardware, gecko paracord
Tx5x3inches
lsl DriÍt(2016l.
8xTx5inches African mahogany, birch plywood, canary wood, double coat hook, cotton candy paracord
l6l Support (2OL4l Maple, azek, railing hardware, peacock paracord
Tx5x4inches
17l Nook (2oL6l 6x7 x5 inches African mahogany, zebrawood, cabinet handle, cotton candy paracord
t8l Hong (2OL6l
9x5x3inches Oak, birch plywood, zebra wood, poplar, cabinet knobs, abyss paracord
tel Stretch (2016)
9x4x3inches
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African mahogany, white ash, coat hooks, fast paracord
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[10] Pivot (2OL6) x6x 3 inches Birch plywood, poplar, cabinet handles, acid purple with silver gray diamond paracord
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Crown (2016) Moulding, latex enamel, pine, carpet, caulk guns, hardware 63 x 134 x 70 inches
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Thomas Beale tbeale.com
Bio: Thomas Beale is aNew York-based artist who works primarily with found, natural materials. In 2008, he founded Honey Space, a non-commercial exhibition space that he operated in Chelsea wttilZ0l2. Exhibitions include Museum of Old and New Art (Tasmania,20l3), Family Business (New York, 2013),Moscow Biennial (2011), Gogolfest (Kiev, Uk¡aine 2010), amongst others. Thomas has received numerous honors including grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the U.S.-Japan Creative Artist Fellowship, and has participated in residencies at Yaddo, Pioneer Works, the Watermill Center, and the Vermont Studio Center, amongst others.
Artist Statement: Deep memories of time spent in the woods: alone, with friends, building, exploring, wondering,
aware-ing, becoming. Much later, what is it I wish to bring into the world? A reflection back, told through that very medium. Wood breathes. It is both hard, and soft. Long, long ago, our ancestors climbed down from the trees. Much later, they hamessed fire. And sometime thereafter, they built a culture, and civilization- largely from wood. We take all of this for granted, yet somewhere within, I believe, this is all still a part of us. We live largely removed from the tumult and wonder of forced survival amidst an untamed environment. Surely we should be grateful for our circumstances, and yet, for many, I suspect, an ennui can creep in at the edges. We are not always within our nature, but it is somewhere within us. This work is a wild, blind reach to something... not always certain, but when it works, for me, it feels right.
Tramp by Thomas Beale 2012 Found wood, pigment, paint, fabric, metal, glass 45 x32 x 30 inches
Untitled by Thomas Beale
20t2 Found wood, graphite 30 x 28 x 42 inches
Venus by Thomas Beale 2002 Found wood 3tt
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Harlequin by Thomas Beale þictured in video)
Donna Dodson: Artist Statement and Bio
'My artwork celebrates the mystical relationship between human beings and the animal kingdom. Because there were no icons of women in the church that I grew up in, my vision is to create them.
Through hybrid female-animal forms that I sculpt in wood, I flesh out sensuality, sexuality and soul with a well-proportioned figurative vocabulary. The natural grain of the wood interacts with the form and shape of my sculptures in a descriptive way, suggesting nostrils, and nipples or garments and fabric textures. I often stylize each piece to enhance the girl, woman, princess, queen or goddess within. The mouths, or in some cases beaks, are closed symbolizing the mysteries they embody. These figures are sculpted in sizes ranging from one to fourteen feet tall. I use color in both subtle and bold ways to activate
each piece.
My inspiration comes from ancient iconography and mythological imagery.'
Donna Dodson is an American sculptor who has been honored with solo shows for her mythic wood sculptures in art museums, galleries and art fairs. In addition, her larger than life goddess figures have been exhibited intemationally in sculpture parks and public art projects. ln20ll she participated in the Verbier 3D Foundation's Artist Residency and Sculpture Park in Switzerland. In 2013, she was featured at the Fountain Art Fair NYC in the historic 69th Regiment Armory Building. [n2014, she participated in a residency in Cusco Peru at the Escuela de Bellas Artes that culminated in an exhibition at Museo Convento de Santo Domingo Qorikancha with the Boston Sculptors Gallery. Donna had her first solo museum show of "Mermaids" in2016 at the New Bedford Art Museum. Her work is in collection of the Provincetown Art Museum, the Fuller Craft Museum, the Davistown Museum, the Dana Hall School and many private collections. Her work has been reviewed in the Boston Globe, Sculpture Magazine, Boston Magazine, The Daily Mail, New York Magazine, Artnet and The Daily Beast. She has received grants from the George Sugarman Foundation, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the New Hampshire Woodworkers Guild. Dodson is a graduate of Wellesley College. Dodson is a popular public speaker and she regularly contributes articles to artmagazines and newspapers that demonstrate the economic impact and global reach ofthe arts sector.
W: http://donnadodsonartist.blogspot.com E:
[email protected] T: 617-960-6708
Donna Dodson
Title
Size
Medium
Bantam
46"x13x13
cherry, paint
2011
Cardinal
38"x13x13
cherry, paint
2010
Hawkeye
41"x14x14
cherry, paint
2011
White Stork
38'ï13x14
oak, pine
2011
Date
lmage
Donna Dodson
Conquistadora
23"x14x13
walnut
2013
Brown
Pelican
34"x11x11
cherry, pigment, paint
2011
Turkey
Mother
40"x14x13
cherry, paint
201',|
Hippo
Goddess
21" tall
wood, paint
2013
Mighty
Hippo
50"x20"30
walnut, paint
2014
Breon Dunigan is a sculptor living and working in Truro, Massachusetts. She has deep connections to the Art Colony in Provincetown. Dunigan studied at The North Carolina School of the Arts, Atlanta College of Art, and The Massachusetts College of Art. Breon holds an MFA from The Mason Gross School of Arts at Rutgers University. "Much of my recent work has focused on my perception and interpretation of our attachment to objects of all kinds. The sculptures are created using items I have collected both conceptually and literally, as well as items that have been handed down through generations of my family. My wall sculptures of horned "Trophy Heads" are made from repurposed furniture and textiles. "The sculptures are a marvel of ingenious fabrication, and a witty commentary on the nature and psychology of what it means to gather trophies in the first place. They're fun, and a little bit unnerving." -Andre Van Der Wende, Cape Cod Times
Breon Dunigan: Work in the Show
Bloom, 33x8xL3" 2Ot7
Augustus,
17
x33xL5" 201,6
Phineas, Wood and Fabric
17xl6xlL"
2O16
DEER
Wood and Fabric 52"Hx 25"W x 32"D1990
PERUKE
Wood and Fabric 18"h x 25"w x l9"d2OLs
Bop, Wood and Fabric 28xL6xL6" 2O1-5
Unguis, Wood and Fabric 38x13x16" 2015
Rhino, Wood and Fabric 24xL6x24" 2OL3
VANESSA GERMAN is a visual and performance
artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her neighborhood of Homewood is the community whose words inspire German's powerful performance work, and whose cast-off relics form the language of her copiously embellished sculptures. These enigmatic child-figures, literally and figuratively rebuilt from the fragments of other children's dolls, are at once seers, protectors, gatherers and keepers of the family secrets. German draws inspiration from the Kongo "Nkisi" power figures, Mexican iconography, and the many potent, tragic, and stark realities of present day life. Drawing upon the richness of black experience, her work simultaneously engages a cross-cultural tradition of encrusted bodies, whose ritual functions point to the cycles of birth, death and rebirth.
"there is love here. (here, as in, in my work) there is healing here, there is road to recovery here, there is transformation here, there is history here, there is appropriation to truth here, there is beauty & a pointed finger here, there is recognition of genuine brutality here, there is recognition of complicity & complexity here, there is a reclamation & transformation & transcendence here." - Vanessa German
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2 ships passing in the night, or i take my soul with me everywhere i go, thank you,2Ot4 2 decorative ship models, doll parts, cloth, twine, fear, hair grease, tar, love, skateboard, white beads, homewood beads, rhinestones for the eyes, mirror, antique blue ticking, the ocean, slavery on an everyday basis as made real and present by the reality of white supremacy, righteous clarity, keys, coffee tins, stomach mirror, old jr. navigators flashlight, white porcelain doll heads from the bombed out doll factories in germany, the journey from rage to understanding, the journey from compassion for everyone else to compassion for myself, the journey from lies to truth, the actualization of justice as national migration, old natty quilt parts, pain, and horror and how it feels to know that no one actually on your side, being blamed for it, pure lard tin, red skateboard
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mon in the moon biscuit box or, journey from the 5 dimension, allo my homies along for the ride,20t4 man in the moon biscuit box, doll parts, decorative boat, information on the middle passage and the trail of tears in my bones, in my bones i say!, souvenir figurines to puton your mantle place to
let alla your black friends know that you're down with the cause- or have been to Africa- or, at least willing to acknowledge the present presence of Africa- what kind of negro are you? moon faced party noise maker, made in japan chicken on the head, skateboard, mirror, the migration of the human soul
as
told by theentire human genome, decorative bird, paddles for the journey, stars in the night skies, blood done signed my name, by timothy tyson, holiness riding down through my fingertips, tar, plaster, plaster gauze, mike browns' brown body, so many things to, "get-over", rhinestone for eyes, red, white, blue, black pigment, cowrie shells, 2 open mouths as handles to get a grip on this piece, wood, pain, rage, cloth, twine, the inclínat¡on to just. rise up, and fl¡ homewood beads
my m¡grat¡ng soul with the prize blue ribbon or kick push kick push,2Ot4
old doll parts, toy noise makers, the sound of my neighbor running out of the house at 5am and screaming, wood, tar, old scrappy quilt, my mother was a quilter, cloth, twine, reproduction political buttons, a short national memory, rage, homewood beads, american eagle book end, huge sea shell from the ocean, ceramic elephant, bottle caps, keys, buttons, tears, rhinestones for eyes, cowrie shells, mirror, ship on the head, toy cow, toy cart, coffee tin, match stick bin with a tiny little gun in it just in
to protect itself along the journey, hope, interconnectedness, a beautiful hairbrush, american legion pin, glass bottles, toy gun, baby shoe, beads, grandma's old jewelry, faith in the transformation, something about the power the power the power of love, and a small bird cage that case this sculpture needs
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# & ö Play Things,2Ot4 Black face bottle opener, the shape of getting on to go on, the power of the creative spirit reflective in the liberating hairstyles of young black women, racism, the pain of living with injustice and being
always expected to just smile, and take things, and make nice, and act like since we all know that it exists-- it's just ok, porcelain figurines, skate, carved wood foot as ashtray, propellor, black box turned upside down, american flag made into tiny doll clothes, cowrie shells, mop head as petticoat, button christmas ornaments as hair adornments, liberty through everyday creative expression, love. love. love and more love
Pat Keck
www.patkeck.com
Bio: Graduated from The Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in sculpture in 1978. Founding member of the World Sculpture Racing Society and winner of the V/orld's First Sculpture Race in Cambridge MA in 1992. Represented by Martina Hamilton Gallery in NYC from 1984-89. Represented by Genovese/Sullivan Gallery in Boston from 1994-2007. Cunently represented by GW Einstein Co. in New York City. Mid career retrospective, "Puppets, Ghosts andZombies" in 2003 atthe DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA, which traveled in2004 to the Kilkenny Arts Festival in Kilkenny, Ireland and in 2005 to the McColl Center in Charlotte, NC. Featured in the PBS series "Art Close Up" in 2004. In 2005 collaborated with the theater company, Molasses Tank Productions, in "Acts of Futility", a staging of six one act plays by Samuel Beckett that drew on imagery from her work. Collaborated with film maker PeterAntony on the short film, "Night and Day" from 2010 to2015.
Collections: Addison Gallery The Davison Art Center, DeCordova Museum, Fogg Art Museum, Boston Public Library NY Public Library Fidelity Investments, Wellington Management Statement: Wood is a wonderful medium. You can cut it up, glue it back together, build with it, carve it, paint it and, if things don't work out, you can burn it up and it will keep you warm. You can use your wood chips to mulch your garden. It smells nice when you're working with it. David Bowie once said that in the future people would want to come home and touch something made of wood. That was a long time ago... so I think it's true now.
Much of my inspiration, puppets, dummies, carousel and cigar store figures, comes from things traditionally made of wood. What draws me to these things is the quality they have that makes people think of them as little beings, rather than objects. Being made of wood is a big part of that as, in a very real way, they were once alive. I feel a great responsibility toward the tree whose life I took and it's always on my mind that the spirit of that tree is in the wood I'm carving and embodied in the figure that results.
Pat Keck
Seated Giantess, painted wood and mixed media,
8'x 3'8" x 5'6" 1992
Tricky Man, painted wood and mixed media,81x16x16 " 2OLO
Sleepwalking Ghost, painted wood and mixed media, 44x2lx22" 1986
Fortune, painted wood and mixed media,75x36x36" 2OO7
Man with some restraints, painted wood and mixed media,
44x75xl5"
2O1.6
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Night and Day Stage Set with Marionettes/ Collaboration with Peter Anthony, painted wood and mixed
media,75x25x48" 2OI2
Wood block prints:
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IENNIFER MAESTRE
jennifermaestre.com ARTIST BIO
Born 1959 in fohannesburg, South Africa, currently residing and working in Maynard, MA.
jennifer Maestre is best known for her pencil point sculptures. The sculptures are created by sewing together thousands of drilled and sharpened pencils using a beading technique commonly known as "peyote stitch". Maestre studied Fine Arts at Wellesley College ('81) and majored in Glass at the Massachusetts College of and Design ('97). After graduating with honors from Mass Art, she started creating work inspired by sea urchins, first from nails, and then from pencils. She is also inspired by the drawings of Ernst Haeckel and Odilon Redon. She exhibits She has
Art
nationally and internationally. Recent sculptures are at sea on the cruise ship TUI Atlantik.
won numerous awards, including a2007 Mass Cultural Council grant.
Her commissions include sculptures for the cruise ship TUI Atlantik, a Men's Fashion Week window display for Bottega Veneta in Milan, Italy, and sculpture for Boeringer Ingelheim, Germany.
work in the permanent collections of the Decordova Museum, KrannertArt Museum, New Britain Museum of American Art, and Faber-Castell.
She has
ARTIST STATEMENT The wood I use in my work has already been processed, and transformed into pencils. I process the pencils
further, using what is normally a tool to create art into the art itself. My sculptures were originally inspired by the form and function of the sea urchin. The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences. The tension unveiled, we feel push and pull, desire and repulsion. The sections of pencils present aspects of sharp and smooth for two very different textural and aesthetic experiences. Paradox and surprise are integral in my choice of materials. Quantities of industrially manufactured objects are used to create flexible forms reminiscent of the organic shapes of animals and nature. Pencils are common objects, here, these anonymous objects become the structure. There is true a fragility to the sometimes brutal aspect of the sculptures, vulnerability that is belied by the fearsome texture.
drill a hole in each section (to turn them into beads), sharpen them all and sew them together. The beading technique I rely on most is peyote stitch.
To make the pencil sculptures, I take hundreds of pencils, cut them into 1-inch sections,
Jennifer Mastre
Blue Spine, pencils, 21x8x9 inches, 2008
Circumbendi bus, penci ls, 14.5x6x6 inches, 2003
Dyad, pencils, 13.5x5x5.5 inches, 2003
Limbo, pencils, 18.5 x 11x4.5 inches,2003
Materialize, pencils, 19x10x10 inches, 2005
Tiamat, pencils, t2xl2xL2 inches, 2005
Naiad, pencils, 10.5x10.5x10.5 inches, 2007
iason Middlebrook ABOUT By re-configuring patterns found in nature, such as the shape and color of a wild mushroom, or the cross
section of a tree trunk, Hudson, NY-based, Northern California-bred artist Jason Middlebrook creates ornate abstract works that vibrate with a rhythmic sensibility. lnfluenced by iconic artists such as Robert Smithson, Sol Lewitt, and John McCracken, Middlebrook's relationship to the land stems from an admittedly Californian sensibility. Although abstract in nature, each plank painting presents the narrative of each tree they're influenced by. Applying the paint in parallel lines or chevrons, Middlebrook allows for the grain to his marks. Whether fluid or geometric, the resultant forms reverberate. His choice of color varies, occasionally echoing the synthetic colors used to tag trees for logging and at other times stark and austere. These natural abstractions consider the environment while
acknowledging our inherent need to destroy it.
Bto Jason Middlebrook (b. 1966 Jackson, Michigan, lives Hudson, New York) has exhibited extensively in the US and
in Europe since 1994 when he graduated from San Francisco Art lnstitute. His critically-acclaimed
solo show at Mass MoCA opened in 2013, along with site specific installations at SCAD in Savannah, GA, and at Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, NY. His work has also exhibited at The Aldrich Museum, Connecticut; The Aspen Art Museum, Colorado; Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea Siena, ltaly; The New Museum; The Whítney Museum; The Welcome Trust, London; and the Public Art Fund NY, among other institutions. ln 2010, Middlebrook had two major commissions at The
Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The former was awarded best public artwork in the United States by the Americans for the Arts in 2O12, and the latter as part of the exhibit Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy, curated by Lynne Warren. Current projects include Landscape, abstracted, a group exhibition at the MFA Boston, 'Your General Store' at SlTElines: New Perspectíves on Art of the Americas, the SITE Santa Fe Biennial, and Now-ism: Abstraction Today at the Pizzuti Collection in Columbus, Ohio.
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Collecting Stones, 2014
Nine White Paintings, 2017
We dug our own holes, 2015
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lnspired by my trip to Craters, 2015 ÇÉËi,i
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Andy Moerlein Natural forces like geology and weather are deeply embedded in our daily chemístry and our living story. Moerlein's art presents a personal reaction to the powerful interaction between psyche and phenomena. The goal is both sensual and conceptual. The art makes visible a personal narrative.
Moerlein is a storyteller. The work included in this show features sculptures informed by Moerlein's enthusiasm for scholars' rocks. This Chinese tradition of collecting scholars' rocks involves the elegant presentation of precious and adored stones for contemplation and enjoyment. The story presented is ancient.
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Andy Moerlein is an internationally exhibited sculptor. His work has been shown in museums, sculpture gardens, and galleries from Alaska to New York, Switzerland to Peru. Mr. Moerlein has an extensive
resume of public art works and site specific monumental outdoor sculptures. ln 2011- he participated in the Verbier 3D Foundation's Artist Residency in the Swiss Alps. ln 2072, he was the Artist in Residence at
the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts. ln 2013 he worked in residence in Cusco Peru. ln 2O!4 he carved granite at Contemporary Arts lnternational's Carvíng Symposium "Art Archeology". He has awarded the Distinguished Chair 2015 at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castel Hill where an installation was commissioned for their garden. ln 2016 his newest work was featured in a solo exhibition "Geology" at Boston Sculptors Gallery.
Andy Moerlein Art Gomplex Museum 2017 Sumo
2016 red oak 32"h x 7 x 19 Solid. Rugged. Sudden and explosive. 4 a.m.
2016 red oak, plywood 21"hx 6 x 10 The stretch and ache of late night ideas makes deep sleep impossible.
Resf
2016 ceramic, wood 8"h x 9 x 11 Stones are mobile followers of gravity. Pausing often in their journey, they are just resting. For the moment.
Gift
2016 red oak 11 x 6 x 12" The very first sculpture in this series of scholars' rocks influenced sculptures The sentimental landscape is emotional bedrock. Our lovely relationship shares an affection for exploring place.
Plume
2016 red oak, plywood 84"h x 16x24 A dormant volcano. There can be peace in the steady plume
Uncharted
2017 red oak, plywood, beech, maple 50"h x Unknown places, so familiar. A meditation on the landscape of memory.
46x46
Uncharted (study#1)
2017 mono print enhanced with pen, ink, pencil
Uncharted (study#2)
2017 mono print enhanced with pen, ink, pencil
Uncharted
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Martin Ulman ARTIST STATEMENT
My art evokes images of my life and time. These sculptures are recreated using artifacts accumulated over many years, which were found in discarded piles of junk. The refuse of the L9th and 20th century technology. These items are incorporated into my art allowing viewers another perspective and the objects another life. The art is always figurative in image, sometimes whimsical, depicting humor where there was none, sometimes social commentary, or brutal in portraying horrific events that occurred in the world. The art becomes a vehicle to encapsulate a slice of history and give it a second form.
Initially in my career, the artwork was constructed using recognizable elements but reassembled using both welding and miscellaneous fastening methods. This proved to be challenging to say the least. Not only were the parts difficult to attach they were also prone to breaking when stressed. Over the years I have adapted my assembly to suit the materials and the attachment methods. As an Architectural designer, I have built many models of buildings using wood as the key component. It was only natural that I would gravitate to the use of wood elements to construct the ships and the buildings. The difficulty I have is finding wooden pieces that can scale down to the sculpture size. That is why there are so many broken tables and chairs in the studio. Wood is easier to work with allowing me to make better connections and fix mistakes. Many of the ship models are constructed from ocean tumbled lobster trap wood. The gnarly and discolored pieces are quite beautiful when reused. Chair spindles and turned table legs make great columns when used on model buildings.
Blo Martin Ulman, a Boston-based artist, is a sculptor who uses found objects as his medium. His work is figurative in nature and the subject matter varies widely. Ulman is a graduate of the Boston Architectural College, which is where his interest in art, specifically sculpture started. He began painting at fîrst, but when experimenting with some rusted tools it became clear that working with three-dimensional forms is where his passion was. He has never faltered in his infatuation with junk and the possibilities of transforming it in to works of art. In 2005, his work was featured in 2005
Tyøshformøtions Eqst, a juried travelling exhibition at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA
Mr. Ulman has several pieces in the Steø;mpunk Weøpons exhibit that was first shown at the 2OI4 Springfield Armory and is now at the NRA Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia.
ln 2012, Ulman had a one-man show at Northeastern
UniversitSr's
Gallery 360, titled Seashlps; Alrshtps; Spøceshlps.
Mr. Ulman's work has been reviewed in the following publications West Roxbury Transcript, ..."Tùrrling Junkinto Arf , Lorraine Emanuel, Boston Globe, "Talking Trash," Linda Matchan
Martin Ulman
DEATH CAMP, 20LL,49" X25 y2" X 53" TALL PARLOR STOVE SINK tEG OVEN PARTS FENCE POST IRON TRIVET TRAINS & TRACKS
KRISTALLNACHT: NIGHT OF THE BROKEN GLAS$ 20L0 g" 49 3f x25 3/8" X44" TALL SYNAGOGUE BENCH ENDS PHONOGRAPH LID FIRE HOSE REEL SHELF TABLE LEGS CHAIR PARTS MIRROR FRAME FLOOR GRILLE
PARIS ROUNDUP, 20LL
37 5/8',X43 5/8',X32" TALL SEWING MACHINE CABINET DRAWERS TRAINS & TRACKS
/20L2
SWISS BANK,ZOLL WOOD TRIM WAFFLE MAKER TRAINS & TRACKS CHAIR PARTS
A
WARSAW GHETTO, 2OT3 7/+"
3/+"
X24" TALL 47 X37 SEWING MACHINE CABINET DRAWERS PIANO KEY LID VEGETABLE GRATERS LAMP PARTS ERECTOR SET PARTS
OUTLET PLATES TRIVET
MIKE WRIGHT ARTIST STATEMENT My process starts with searching Provincetown beaches and streets for old painted wood, for me the point of using found wood is that, as debris, it seems unpromising. But that lack of promise is also its appeal. The peeling paint, the color scrubbed by salt waves, sand or human use allows us to recognize the influence of its past. My principle parameter is that the wood must be found in Provincetown. The second is not to paint that wood, whose patina is impossible to duplicate. I like the moment when I place the first pieces of old wood, seeing allthat potential, seeing relationships of form begin to take shape. I have learned to listen to the materials and allow for any chance opportunity to emerge, achieving the object through building up but also working them, modifying form with minimal carpentry-cutting, joining, sandwiching. When I touch the wood I feel its essence, the wood had an experience as boat or floorboard and it remembers its past. I interfere with what it was made to be, to make it something else: a sculpture that includes some detailfrom the wood's archeological memory. To further explore the potential of found wood, I make sculptures in a series. In the "natura morta" (still life) series, I interpret in three dimensions the twodimensional layered paintings from the 1920s of the early Provincetown Modernists, Blanche Lazzell, Kenneth Stubbs, Karl Knaths and Lillian Orlowsky
Bto Mike Wright had a solo exhibition at the St Botolph Club in Boston in 2016; had a solo exhibition at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in 2015; received a PollockKrasner Foundation Grant in 2014; was the "Artist in Residence" at Cape Cod Community College; was awarded a fullfellowship to the Vermont Studio Center; won the Michael E. Deluty Outstanding Sculpture Prize at the CAA National Competitionin200T, won the 1998 National Competitíon at PAAM, resulting in a solo exhibition in 1999. She has exhibited in Japan, New York City, East Hampton, Maryland, Montana, Florida, Louisiana, Boston and Provincetown. Her work is in the Provincetown Art Association and Museum Collection, in the Cape Cod Museum of Art Collection and in many private collections. Alden Gallery represents her in Provincetown
MIKE WRIGHT
Bleak I Life with Chair 2017 54x36x33" found painted wood and chair
Still Life #1 2010 54x24x18" found painted wood
After Kenneth Stubbs' Red Tabletop, White Window 2013,36x24x24", found painted wood and child's table
Modernist Sculpture #1 2012 found painted wood 49x18x12'
Sea Drift 2009 found painted wood and oar 46x91x16"
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Color Field Green 2017 found painted wood 11x10x2"
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Three Starboard Sides 1999 found painted wooden boat sides 124x38x5"
