Presentation: Wood Sculpture

"Splash"

Dan Webb

2006

Dan Webb:

Dan Webb was born in 1965. He received his BFA in 1991 from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA. He still lives and works in Seattle. Webb seems to be mostly a gallery artist, however in his writing he states that he is also equally content doing public commissions, despite the opinions of most in the gallery art world; stating: “it’s easier to see where you live when you cross the street once in awhile…. all of the criticisms of public art turn out to have either a corollary, or an equally egregious opposite in the gallery world.” Much of Webb’s work in wood is carefully carved to give it realistic, almost life-like detail. Several works are carved in such a way as to make the wood look like it’s flowing or melting, though he makes no attempt to disguise the true nature of the material. The pieces “Always” and “Never”, both made in 2006, are both carvings of candles. The former is a complete, new candle that looks as if it has just started to burn, the latter, is melted to barely a stump. Each piece appears to be carved from a single block. Two other works of Webb’s “Splash” (2006) and “Fortress” (2009) also show the artist’s ability to work the wood into the forms of much more malleable materials. “Fortress” depicts the form of two figures underneath a sheet with their shoes sticking out from the bottom and the sheet seems to hang just as if it were actual cloth. In “Splash”, another piece that is carved out of a single block, Webb carves just the top few inches of the block with a splash and ripples radiating from it. He uses the rings from the tree to enhance the ripples, placing the splash at the center of them. In another work, “Little Cuts”, (2006) Webb began with a single block and continues to carve it until there is nothing left, taking 30 pictures at different intervals. In “Desk I”, an earlier work from 1999, he takes a different approach, creating a desk out of wood and attaching hundreds of pieces of gum to the underside stretching down towards the floor.

Mike Rea:

Mike Rea was born in 1976. He is currently living in Milwaukee, WI, though he’s originally from Chicago. In his artist statement, Rea expresses that the sculptures he creates are intended to be imperfect. He makes them completely from memory and they are mostly based in fiction. He says that he “find[s] the beauty in life lies in between moments.” And that his “work offers a sense of what could be and what could never be simultaneously.” His works include: “A Prosthetic Suit for Stephen Hawking with Japanese Steel” (2007), “The Leviathan with a Really, Really Small Body And a Shark with a Really, Really Big Fin.” (2006), “Lysistrata” (2005), “Ark of the Covenant” (2007), and “Who Know Starman Would Answer Back”, (2005). All are constructed mostly of wood, all of it unfinished.

Usula Von Rydingsvard:

Usula Von Rydingsvard was born in 1942. She grew up in Nazi controlled Germany, and then in refugee camps after the end of the war. She received her BA, MA, and BFA in America, and in 1991 received an honorary doctorate from Maryland Institute College of Art. Her works are almost all abstract of a fairly large scale and most of them are made of Cedar. Some of her works include: “Czara Z Bąbelkami” (2006), “Berwici Pici Pa” (2005),“Vera’s Collar II” (2002), “Pod Pachą” (2003), and “Can’t Eat Black” (2002). All of which are indoor installations, except for “Czara Z Bąbelkami”. All of the works are very rough, looking like they’ve been sort of chopped into.

Maya Lin:

Maya Lin was born in 1959 in Ohio. She works with both art installations and architecture. She is best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial. Most of her work is inspired by landscapes of some sort. For example, her works “2x4 Landscape” (2006) and “The Character of a Hill, Under Glass” (2002). She also has works such as the Langston Hughes Library (1999) and her newest memorial “What Is Missing?” (2009), which is intended to bring attention to the hundreds of species that are already extinct or disappearing and will likely be gone before long.

Robert Brady:

Robert Brady was born in 1976 in Reno, NV. He received his BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1969 and his MFA from University of California at Davis in 1975. Brady Started working in ceramics, making both pottery and sculpture, but eventually expanded to also work with wood sculpture. Many of his sculptures include tall, thin, distorted figures, such as “Ally” (2007), “Consort” (2007), and “Architect” (2006). Other sculptures by Brady include: “Passage” (2007) and “Empire” (2007).

Dan Webb:

www.gregkucera.com/webb.htm

web.mac.com/danwebb1/danwebbart.com

Mike Rea:

www.mikerea.com

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?Itemid=92&id=1015&option=com_content&task=view

Usula Von Rydingsvard:

http://www.ursulavonrydingsvard.net/

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/vonrydingsvard/index.html

Maya Lin:

http://www.mayalin.com/

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ki-Lo/Lin-Maya.html

Robert Brady:

http://www.bquayartgallery.com/archive/brady2008.html#2

http://www.bquayartgallery.com/artists/brady_bio.html

http://www.traxgallery.com/artist.php?sid=brady&page=3