ODETTA Abstract Sculptures

Over the past few years, Jesse Hickman has been making minimal abstract paintings on wood with few constraints. He calls this series Notes, thinking of these pieces as drawn sketches...

Over the past few years, Jesse Hickman has been making minimal abstract paintings on wood with few constraints. He calls this series Notes, thinking of these pieces as drawn sketches...

Over many decades Loren Eiferman has created and mastered a unique technique of working with wood—her primary material. First, she begins with a drawing of an idea. Then she takes...

Over many decades Loren Eiferman has created and mastered a unique technique of working with wood—her primary material. First, she begins with a drawing of an idea. Then she takes a daily walk in the woods surrounding her studio and collects tree limbs and long sticks that have fallen to the ground. She never chops down a living tree or uses green wood. Eiferman allows the wood time to cure in the studio to make sure it won’t check or crack. Next, she debarks the branch and looks for shapes found within each piece of wood. Using a Japanese hand saw, she cuts and connect these small shapes together using dowels and wood glue. Then, all the open joints get filled with a home made putty, which is then sanded so she can see the newly formed shapes. This process is until the new sculpture appears like the original line drawing but in space. She wants the work to appear as if it grew in nature, when in fact each sculpture is composed of over 100 small pieces of wood that are seamlessly jointed together. Her work can be called the ultimate recycling: taking the detritus of nature and giving it a new life. We have all at one point or another picked up a stick from the ground—touched the wood, peeled the bark off with our fingernails. Her work taps into that same primal desire of touching nature and being close to it. Trees connect us back to nature, back to this Earth. Her work has a meditative quality to it—a quiet, calming energy. Her influences are many; from looking at nature and plant life on this Earth to researching the heavenly bodies in the images beamed back from the Hubble Telescope. From studying ancient Buddhist mandalas and designs to delving deeper into quantum physics. And from researching mysterious manuscripts to studying the patterns inside our brains. For Invocation, we are exhibiting her newest body of work, inspired by the illustrations found in the Voynich Manuscript. This 250-page book, is believed to have been written in the early 15th century, of a mysterious origin and purpose. Written in an unknown language and currently housed at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book Library, the manuscript has eluded all attempts in the intervening centuries to decode or decipher its purpose and meaning. This enigmatic book is divided into 6 different sections (herbal, astronomical, biological, cosmological, pharmaceutical and recipes). Having discovered the images contained in this codex over the Internet, Eiferman felt an immediate, profound and inexplicable connection to this manuscript and its creator. The artist is currently transposing the “herbal” section of manuscript into sculptures. This section has drawings in it of plants and flowers that do not really exist in nature—past or present. These aren’t just pretty images of flowers—they also contain the wacky root systems and seemingly out of proportion leaves, stamens and pistils. Loren Eiferman was born in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA from SUNY Purchase. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the Tri-State region including gallery and museum exhibitions in the Hudson Valley and Connecticut. Her work is included in numerous corporate and private art collections. In 2014 she was awarded a NYC MTA Arts & Design art commission to produce steel railings...

Over many decades Loren Eiferman has created and mastered a unique technique of working with wood—her primary material. First, she begins with a drawing of an idea. Then she take...

Over many decades Loren Eiferman has created and mastered a unique technique of working with wood—her primary material. First, she begins with a drawing of an idea. Then she takes a daily walk in the woods surrounding her studio and collects tree limbs and long sticks that have fallen to the ground. She never chops down a living tree or uses green wood. Eiferman allows the wood time to cure in the studio to make sure it won’t check or crack. Next, she debarks the branch and looks for shapes found within each piece of wood. Using a Japanese hand saw, she cuts and connect these small shapes together using dowels and wood glue. Then, all the open joints get filled with a home made putty, which is then sanded so she can see the newly formed shapes. This process is until the new sculpture appears like the original line drawing but in space. She wants the work to appear as if it grew in nature, when in fact each sculpture is composed of over 100 small pieces of wood that are seamlessly jointed together. Her work can be called the ultimate recycling: taking the detritus of nature and giving it a new life. We have all at one point or another picked up a stick from the ground—touched the wood, peeled the bark off with our fingernails. Her work taps into that same primal desire of touching nature and being close to it. Trees connect us back to nature, back to this Earth. Her work has a meditative quality to it—a quiet, calming energy. Her influences are many; from looking at nature and plant life on this Earth to researching the heavenly bodies in the images beamed back from the Hubble Telescope. From studying ancient Buddhist mandalas and designs to delving deeper into quantum physics. And from researching mysterious manuscripts to studying the patterns inside our brains. Her newest body of work is inspired by the illustrations found in the Voynich Manuscript. This 250-page book, is believed to have been written in the early 15th century, of a mysterious origin and purpose. Written in an unknown language and currently housed at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book Library, the manuscript has eluded all attempts in the intervening centuries to decode or decipher its purpose and meaning. This enigmatic book is divided into 6 different sections (herbal, astronomical, biological, cosmological, pharmaceutical and recipes). Having discovered the images contained in this codex over the Internet, Eiferman felt an immediate, profound and inexplicable connection to this manuscript and its creator. The artist is currently transposing the “herbal” section of manuscript into sculptures. This section has drawings in it of plants and flowers that do not really exist in nature—past or present. These aren’t just pretty images of flowers—they also contain the wacky root systems and seemingly out of proportion leaves, stamens and pistils. Loren Eiferman was born in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA from SUNY Purchase. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the Tri-State region including gallery and museum exhibitions in the Hudson Valley and Connecticut. Her work is included in numerous corporate and private art collections. In 2014 she was awarded a NYC MTA Arts & Design art commission to produce steel railings...

Over many decades Loren Eiferman has created and mastered a unique technique of working with wood—her primary material. First, she begins with a drawing of an idea. Then she takes...

A native New Yorker, Diane had an earlier career including 17 years as a management consultant to local nonprofits concerned with poverty or disenfranchisement; work in NYC governmen...

A native New Yorker, Diane had an earlier career including 17 years as a management consultant to local nonprofits concerned with poverty or disenfranchisement; work in NYC governmen...

The freestanding sculptures in this portfolio are made from the “sticks”: a pile of found wood that Sweibel has been pulling from to make new works since about 2002. The pile consisted of more than a dozen four- to seven-foot lengths of hardwood, each an uneven inch in depth and width. The sticks were warped, with worn yellow paint on one side and raw wood on the other three. Over the years she has painted the raw sides of the sticks, cut the wood into shorter lengths, and sliced paint off – and kept the residue from these actions. Sweibel has also made sculptures ranging from full-length sticks to tiny stick splinters. She built these sculptures using sliced-off paint. Timeworn materials and objects have an intelligence that the artist looks for and listens to. Shaping and reshaping material to find new form and elicit new insights in the material itself is the territory she is mining. The limitations of the process are its strengths. Her work is concerned with fragility, precariousness, adaptability, and strength. It is a visual response to powerful yet unseen forces - like wind and thoughts - that threaten, propel, ruin, and protect. Liz Sweibel is a multidisciplinary artist working in drawing, sculpture, installation, and digital photography and video. Her spare, personal language of abstraction transforms ordinary materials into statements about connectedness and responsibility: every action has an impact, the effects persist in space and over time, and we are accountable. By drawing attention to simple, ordinary “stuff of life” and referencing both shared and personal history, Sweibel’s work explores and reflects back fundamental experiences in response to our world and relationships. Her intention is to reinvigorate viewers’ awareness of the everyday – in its raw beauty and precariousness – in hopes that they might bring heightened senses of sight and care to their daily lives. Sweibel has participated in solo, two-person, and group exhibits in New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Michigan, and Tennessee since 1998. In 2016, Sweibel’s work was in the group shows Lightly Structured at Sculpture Space NYC, Precarious Constructs at the Venus Knitting Art...

Andra Samelson’s work explores the relationship of microcosm and macrocosm, the celestial and terrestrial. Her imagery is often associated with molecular and galactic systems. Combin...

David Borawski lives and works in Hartford, Connecticut, and received his BFA from the Hartford Art School of the University of Hartford. A multi-media installation artist, his work...

Architecture and functional objects inform the vocabulary of Richard Bottwin’s sculpture. The plywood surfaces, laminated with wood veneers or painted with acrylic colors, are confi...

Architecture, functional objects and the human gestures that occur when interacting with these structures inform the vocabulary of Richard Bottwin’s sculpture. The plywood surfaces,...

The freestanding sculptures in this portfolio are made from the “sticks”: a pile of found wood that Sweibel has been pulling from to make new works since about 2002. The pile consisted of more than a dozen four- to seven-foot lengths of hardwood, each an uneven inch in depth and width. The sticks were warped, with worn yellow paint on one side and raw wood on the other three. Over the years she has painted the raw sides of the sticks, cut the wood into shorter lengths, and sliced paint off – and kept the residue from these actions. Sweibel has also made sculptures ranging from full-length sticks to tiny stick splinters. She built these sculptures using sliced-off paint. Timeworn materials and objects have an intelligence that the artist looks for and listens to. Shaping and reshaping material to find new form and elicit new insights in the material itself is the territory she is mining. The limitations of the process are its strengths. Her work is concerned with fragility, precariousness, adaptability, and strength. It is a visual response to powerful yet unseen forces - like wind and thoughts - that threaten, propel, ruin, and protect. Liz Sweibel is a multidisciplinary artist working in drawing, sculpture, installation, and digital photography and video. Her spare, personal language of abstraction transforms ordinary materials into statements about connectedness and responsibility: every action has an impact, the effects persist in space and over time, and we are accountable. By drawing attention to simple, ordinary “stuff of life” and referencing both shared and personal history, Sweibel’s work explores and reflects back fundamental experiences in response to our world and relationships. Her intention is to reinvigorate viewers’ awareness of the everyday – in its raw beauty and precariousness – in hopes that they might bring heightened senses of sight and care to their daily lives. Sweibel has participated in solo, two-person, and group exhibits in New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Michigan, and Tennessee since 1998. In 2016, Sweibel’s work was in the group shows Lightly Structured at Sculpture Space NYC, Precarious Constructs at the Venus Knitting Art...

In Baker’s work, there is solace in the geometry of fundamentals, and a practice that focuses on the ephemeral nature of paper and the ease of its transportability, which allows her to create large-scale constructions. A desire for definitive certainties and incontrovertible truths in an era of “alternative facts”, precipitate the need for Baker to assert her clarification of evidence. A new major installation has been created for her exhibition at ODETTA that layers baroque design elements found in paper cup carrying trays with anxiety-provoking phrases, rendered as gorgeous, yet fragile paper spheres...

In Baker’s work, there is solace in the geometry of fundamentals, and a practice that focuses on the ephemeral nature of paper and the ease of its transportability, which allows her to create large-scale constructions. A desire for definitive certainties and incontrovertible truths in an era of “alternative facts”, precipitate the need for Baker to assert her clarification of evidence. A new major installation has been created for her exhibition at ODETTA that layers baroque design elements found in paper cup carrying trays with anxiety-provoking phrases, rendered as gorgeous, yet fragile paper spheres...

Norma Marquez Orozco explores concepts of impermanence, perception, form and balance through physical movement of the work itself in a lucid, game-like context, like puzzles. All the elements are made of paper, molded into three-dimensional forms. The repetitive geometric shapes are assembled inside boxes built out of translucent paper. The arrangement is random and unfixed to allow movement and unpredictable composition. The harmonies and tensions in the work arise from different exchanges between the colors, the patterns, and the geometric and organic shapes, as well as the sense that change is constantly occurring as the elements shift and move. When one looks at these compositions, you see them for the first time, every time, because what is creating and completing the artwork is always changing; such as light, weather and forms merge and interact. As a result of these dynamic relationships, the work extends beyond her personal hand, sustaining an appearance and composition entirely of its own. Norma Márquez Orozco was
 born
 in
 Chicago,
Illinois,
 and
 raised
 in
 Guadalajara,
 Jalisco,
 Mexico. Her work can be seen as an investigation into the way relationships emerge and evolve when elements like color, form, shape, lines, angle and pattern are blended, shifted and layered. She currently lives and works in New York City. Marquez Orozco
 has
 curated
 exhibitions throughout
 New
 York
 and
 has hosted
 lectures
 and
 artist
 talks
 for
 the
 public. In
 2001
 she founded
 Floor4Art, an
 alternative
 space
 in
 West
 Harlem
 that
 houses
 artist’s
 studios
 and
 exhibition
 space
 aimed
 at
 producing,
 promoting
 and
 connecting
 artists.
 Exhibition venues include: ODETTA, Brooklyn, NY, Longwood Art Gallery, Queens Museum, The (S)Files 007/ El Barrio...

Norma Marquez Orozco explores concepts of impermanence, perception, form and balance through physical movement of the work itself in a lucid, game-like context, like puzzles. All the elements are made of paper, molded into three-dimensional forms. The repetitive geometric shapes are assembled inside boxes built out of translucent paper. The arrangement is random and unfixed to allow movement and unpredictable composition. The harmonies and tensions in the work arise from different exchanges between the colors, the patterns, and the geometric and organic shapes, as well as the sense that change is constantly occurring as the elements shift and move. When one looks at these compositions, you see them for the first time, every time, because what is creating and completing the artwork is always changing; such as light, weather and forms merge and interact. As a result of these dynamic relationships, the work extends beyond her personal hand, sustaining an appearance and composition entirely of its own. Norma Márquez Orozco was
 born
 in
 Chicago,
Illinois,
 and
 raised
 in
 Guadalajara,
 Jalisco,
 Mexico. Her work can be seen as an investigation into the way relationships emerge and evolve when elements like color, form, shape, lines, angle and pattern are blended, shifted and layered. She currently lives and works in New York City. Marquez Orozco
 has
 curated
 exhibitions throughout
 New
 York
 and
 has hosted
 lectures
 and
 artist
 talks
 for
 the
 public. In
 2001
 she founded
 Floor4Art, an
 alternative
 space
 in
 West
 Harlem
 that
 houses
 artist’s
 studios
 and
 exhibition
 space
 aimed
 at
 producing,
 promoting
 and
 connecting
 artists.
 Exhibition venues include: ODETTA, Brooklyn, NY, Longwood Art Gallery, Queens Museum, The (S)Files 007/ El Barrio...

My work bridges the divide between sculpture and painting and drawing. Paintings are geometric masses of color in oil paint and wood dowels, on shaped canvas. Often grouped in d...

Diane Englander uses formal means to create a place between discord and tranquility, a zone with a charged harmony that energizes as it also provides refuge. That often requires tha...

Diane Englander uses formal means to create a place between discord and tranquility, a zone with a charged harmony that energizes as it also provides refuge. That often requires that the prettiness of an initial surface is made ugly, or there’s a conscious choice to avoid balance in the composition. Hers is a largely intuitive process, the materials entice her. Inspiration from the world that we don't call “art” is where she finds her muse: a wall, a landscape, a window shade transfused with light, a stretch of sand and shadow. Most influential are predecessors like Burri, Vicente, Tapies, Motherwell, Rauschenberg, medieval cloisonné, Vermeer, Breughel, and many, many more. A native New Yorker, Diane had an earlier career including 17 years as a management consultant to local nonprofits concerned with poverty or disenfranchisement; work in NYC government; and several years as a lawyer at a large NYC law firm. “I was brought up going to galleries and museums, a sometimes reluctant attendant to my parents’ passion for looking and for collecting. My own expressive energy must have simmered internally for years, occasionally emerging in photography, in quilt-making, in other tentative explorations, and certainly in providing opportunity and materials for my children to create. Not until those children were nearly grown did I come unequivocally to the need to make art myself.” In late 2006 Diane began making collages that started her on her current path; in late 2007 she left her consulting job to focus on her artwork full-time. She has studied with Bruce Dorfman at the Art Students League in New York, and has had solo exhibits at the Alexey von Schlippe...

Diane Englander uses formal means to create a place between discord and tranquility, a zone with a charged harmony that energizes as it also provides refuge. That often requires that the prettiness of an initial surface is made ugly, or there’s a conscious choice to avoid balance in the composition. Hers is a largely intuitive process, the materials entice her. Inspiration from the world that we don't call “art” is where she finds her muse: a wall, a landscape, a window shade transfused with light, a stretch of sand and shadow. Most influential are predecessors like Burri, Vicente, Tapies, Motherwell, Rauschenberg, medieval cloisonné, Vermeer, Breughel, and many, many more. A native New Yorker, Diane had an earlier career including 17 years as a management consultant to local nonprofits concerned with poverty or disenfranchisement; work in NYC government; and several years as a lawyer at a large NYC law firm. “I was brought up going to galleries and museums, a sometimes reluctant attendant to my parents’ passion for looking and for collecting. My own expressive energy must have simmered internally for years, occasionally emerging in photography, in quilt-making, in other tentative explorations, and certainly in providing opportunity and materials for my children to create. Not until those children were nearly grown did I come unequivocally to the need to make art myself.” In late 2006 Diane began making collages that started her on her current path; in late 2007 she left her consulting job to focus on her artwork full-time. She has studied with Bruce Dorfman at the Art Students League in New York, and has had solo exhibits at the Alexey von Schlippe...

Yvette Cohen’s oil paintings of geometric masses of color on shaped canvas become objects that fluctuate between two and three dimensions, bridging the divide between sculpture and ...

Yvette Cohen’s oil paintings of geometric masses of color on shaped canvas become objects that fluctuate between two and three dimensions, bridging the divide between sculpture and ...

In Sylvia Schwartz' structures, silicone molds are cast from both natural and hand-made forms, including clay coils, volcanic rock patterns, seaweed, and her own fingerprints. The h...

Yvette Cohen’s oil paintings of geometric masses of color on shaped canvas become objects that fluctuate between two and three dimensions, bridging the divide between sculpture and ...

Memory is at its most magical when it conjures up not the event, but its surrounding perceptual and emotional space. Flashes of reflected light, movement seen out of the corner of eye, bits of sound or feeling – these are what ignite memory, giving it form and bringing it to life. Light both beams into and envelops you. Carol Salmanson started working with it in 2003 after painting for many years because of these singular spatial qualities. They enable herto build whole worlds with color and shape, ones that resonate with memory and experience. Painters have often talked about depicting light. Today’s technology allows me to use light as medium as well as subject. Double Diamond is made with layers of light that beam onto reflective material; its two different configurations of diamonds are mounted on a strip that also layers light. The location in the beams creates a glowing frieze that radiates outwards, giving the viewer a first a sense of surprise, and then wonder. Carol Salmanson is an artist working with light and reflective materials to create installations, sculptures, and wall pieces. She received a B.S. in Biological Psychology from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. She attended the Arts Students League, the School of Visual Arts as a Public Art Resident, and the National Academy of Fine Arts as an Abbey Mural Workshop Fellow. Public art projects include Water Bubbles, an installation in twenty windows of the abandoned landmark Constructivist White Tower in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Other window installations include the venues Station Independent Projects, Time Equities’ Art-in-Buildings program, OK Harris Works of Art, 254 Park Avenue South, and Mixed Greens Gallery, all in New York. Her outdoor sculptures include Tri-Quadular Cone in Summit, NJ, and Lot’s Ex-Wife in Brooklyn. She will have an installation, Crown Colony, in the window at 266 W. 37th St, in September of this year. Solo and two-person exhibition venues include SL Gallery (NY), Slag Contemporary (Brooklyn), Station Independent Projects (NY), Brian Morris...

Dorothy Mayhall's small sculptures are little monuments to be toyed with and handled. They should be picked up, fondled, and examined like a rock or shell you collect on the beach be...

A graceful metal sculpture created from altered/ transformed materials, Urban Transformation, industrial steel against a craggy, textured, bark-like bronze elements. ...

FOCUS is a public art sculpture about photographic vision and how it shapes the way we see the world. It is concerned with the viewer’s growing visual perception and bodily experienc...

In 1972, the women’s movement was in full flower. Suzanne Benton had been an early activist, a founder and organizer of NOW Chapters, CT Feminists in the Arts, Women, Metamorphosis 1 (in New Haven, CT, the first women’s art festival in the USA). She'd already been creating metal sculpted masks and working with them in mask tale performances of Women of Myth and Heritage. Her inaugural performance of Sarah and Hagar n 1972 took place at Lincoln Center in NYC. Benton then became the artistic director and producer of an evening on Broadway, Four Chosen Women (performers included herself as mask tale performer, author Anais Nin, actress Vinie Burroughs and dancer Joan Stone). The evening took place at the Edison Theatre, November 22, 1972. While developing the evening on Broadway, Benton met renowned Swedish actress and Hollywood star, Viveca Lindfors. Viveca was then working on her solo performance, I AM A WOMAN, and was looking for a unique theatre set for the show. The happenstance that brought Viveca and Suzanne together. At that same time, recent travel to Macchu Picchu inspired her with the mountain’s great stones sitting on the edge of precipices. These vast stones led her to create welded steel Seated Sculpture Works. Viveca was intrigued by the concept and let her own imagination fly. Imagining a set of welded steel sculpture, she took the leap in commissioning Suzanne with complete faith in artist's ability to fulfill her mandate. Benton created groups of welded sculptures for two theater sets. Protection is one of three sculptures in first set created in 1973. Mother and Child, Pelvic Woman, Facing Each Other are three of five works from the 1974 second set. The first toured with her shows throughout the East Coast and into Toronto, Canada. The second set, created to nest together could travel as checked baggage for international and domestic airline travel. They flew to Denmark in 1980 for her performance at the UN sponsored 1980 Women’s International Conference, Copenhagen. In addition to creating the theatre sets, Benton mounted exhibitions of her masks and sculptures in the lobbies of theatres where she performed (NYC and Northampton). Continuing on with this theme, Becoming is her 1975 Seated Sculpture Work. The theatre sets were returned at the final end of its long run. These Seated Sculpture Works have often been featured in exhibitions, including both the 2003 and 2005 retrospectives. They are part of an oeuvre of 797 sculptures and masks. What attracted her to welded sculpture? This excerpt from her book, The Art of Welded Sculpture, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975 speaks of its lure: "Early in my life, when I had decided to become an artist, I had had an inner vision of being able to hold the physical material of my art in such a way as to bring it into existence with my hands. In welding, I wear a mask, a heavy apron, and gloves. I heat the metal and make it bend so smoothly and gracefully; I cut the metal, rigid metal, into endless shapes; I join the pieces by causing them to flow together with the heat of the flame. Welding was a return to my adolescent vision. It was fulfillment. At that beginning time I felt that even if I went no further, this experience in itself gave me astounding satisfaction. It was as thrilling as the moment of birth. It was my birth." (Pelvic Woman and Protection are illustrated in the book): What began in 1965 became by 2017 an oeuvre of 797 sculptures and masks. The magic of the welding mask...

In 1972, the women’s movement was in full flower. Suzanne Benton had been an early activist, a founder and organizer of NOW Chapters, CT Feminists in the Arts, Women, Metamorphosis 1 (in New Haven, CT, the first women’s art festival in the USA). She'd already been creating metal sculpted masks and working with them in mask tale performances of Women of Myth and Heritage. Her inaugural performance of Sarah and Hagar n 1972 took place at Lincoln Center in NYC. Benton then became the artistic director and producer of an evening on Broadway, Four Chosen Women (performers included herself as mask tale performer, author Anais Nin, actress Vinie Burroughs and dancer Joan Stone). The evening took place at the Edison Theatre, November 22, 1972. While developing the evening on Broadway, Benton met renowned Swedish actress and Hollywood star, Viveca Lindfors. Viveca was then working on her solo performance, I AM A WOMAN, and was looking for a unique theatre set for the show. The happenstance that brought Viveca and Suzanne together. At that same time, recent travel to Macchu Picchu inspired her with the mountain’s great stones sitting on the edge of precipices. These vast stones led her to create welded steel Seated Sculpture Works. Viveca was intrigued by the concept and let her own imagination fly. Imagining a set of welded steel sculpture, she took the leap in commissioning Suzanne with complete faith in artist's ability to fulfill her mandate. Benton created groups of welded sculptures for two theater sets. Protection is one of three sculptures in first set created in 1973. Mother and Child, Pelvic Woman, Facing Each Other are three of five works from the 1974 second set. The first toured with her shows throughout the East Coast and into Toronto, Canada. The second set, created to nest together could travel as checked baggage for international and domestic airline travel. They flew to Denmark in 1980 for her performance at the UN sponsored 1980 Women’s International Conference, Copenhagen. In addition to creating the theatre sets, Benton mounted exhibitions of her masks and sculptures in the lobbies of theatres where she performed (NYC and Northampton). Continuing on with this theme, Becoming is her 1975 Seated Sculpture Work. The theatre sets were returned at the final end of its long run. These Seated Sculpture Works have often been featured in exhibitions, including both the 2003 and 2005 retrospectives. They are part of an oeuvre of 797 sculptures and masks. What attracted her to welded sculpture? This excerpt from her book, The Art of Welded Sculpture, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975 speaks of its lure: "Early in my life, when I had decided to become an artist, I had had an inner vision of being able to hold the physical material of my art in such a way as to bring it into existence with my hands. In welding, I wear a mask, a heavy apron, and gloves. I heat the metal and make it bend so smoothly and gracefully; I cut the metal, rigid metal, into endless shapes; I join the pieces by causing them to flow together with the heat of the flame. Welding was a return to my adolescent vision. It was fulfillment. At that beginning time I felt that even if I went no further, this experience in itself gave me astounding satisfaction. It was as thrilling as the moment of birth. It was my birth." (Pelvic Woman and Protection are illustrated in the book): What began in 1965 became by 2017 an oeuvre of 797 sculptures and masks. The magic of the welding mask...

In 1972, the women’s movement was in full flower. Suzanne Benton had been an early activist, a founder and organizer of NOW Chapters, CT Feminists in the Arts, Women, Metamorphosis 1 (in New Haven, CT, the first women’s art festival in the USA). She'd already been creating metal sculpted masks and working with them in mask tale performances of Women of Myth and Heritage. Her inaugural performance of Sarah and Hagar n 1972 took place at Lincoln Center in NYC. Benton then became the artistic director and producer of an evening on Broadway, Four Chosen Women (performers included herself as mask tale performer, author Anais Nin, actress Vinie Burroughs and dancer Joan Stone). The evening took place at the Edison Theatre, November 22, 1972. While developing the evening on Broadway, Benton met renowned Swedish actress and Hollywood star, Viveca Lindfors. Viveca was then working on her solo performance, I AM A WOMAN, and was looking for a unique theatre set for the show. The happenstance that brought Viveca and Suzanne together. At that same time, recent travel to Macchu Picchu inspired her with the mountain’s great stones sitting on the edge of precipices. These vast stones led her to create welded steel Seated Sculpture Works. Viveca was intrigued by the concept and let her own imagination fly. Imagining a set of welded steel sculpture, she took the leap in commissioning Suzanne with complete faith in artist's ability to fulfill her mandate. Benton created groups of welded sculptures for two theater sets. Protection is one of three sculptures in first set created in 1973. Mother and Child, Pelvic Woman, Facing Each Other are three of five works from the 1974 second set. The first toured with her shows throughout the East Coast and into Toronto, Canada. The second set, created to nest together could travel as checked baggage for international and domestic airline travel. They flew to Denmark in 1980 for her performance at the UN sponsored 1980 Women’s International Conference, Copenhagen. In addition to creating the theatre sets, Benton mounted exhibitions of her masks and sculptures in the lobbies of theatres where she performed (NYC and Northampton). Continuing on with this theme, Becoming is her 1975 Seated Sculpture Work. The theatre sets were returned at the final end of its long run. These Seated Sculpture Works have often been featured in exhibitions, including both the 2003 and 2005 retrospectives. They are part of an oeuvre of 797 sculptures and masks. What attracted her to welded sculpture? This excerpt from her book, The Art of Welded Sculpture, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975 speaks of its lure: "Early in my life, when I had decided to become an artist, I had had an inner vision of being able to hold the physical material of my art in such a way as to bring it into existence with my hands. In welding, I wear a mask, a heavy apron, and gloves. I heat the metal and make it bend so smoothly and gracefully; I cut the metal, rigid metal, into endless shapes; I join the pieces by causing them to flow together with the heat of the flame. Welding was a return to my adolescent vision. It was fulfillment. At that beginning time I felt that even if I went no further, this experience in itself gave me astounding satisfaction. It was as thrilling as the moment of birth. It was my birth." (Pelvic Woman and Protection are illustrated in the book): What began in 1965 became by 2017 an oeuvre of 797 sculptures and masks. The magic of the welding mask...

Architecture and functional objects inform the vocabulary of Richard Bottwin’s sculpture. The plywood surfaces, laminated with wood veneers or painted with acrylic colors, are confi...

David Borawski lives and works in Hartford, Connecticut, and received his BFA from the Hartford Art School of the University of Hartford. A multi-media installation artist, his work...

Where do we come from? Where are we going? What the hell is going on here? 2017-2018 Hand cut paper in wood box Gil Scullion’s conceptual text-based work has been featured in exhibi...

Where do we come from? Where are we going? What the hell is going on here? 2017-2018 Hand cut paper in wood box Gil Scullion’s conceptual text-based work has been featured in exhibi...

Where do we come from? Where are we going? What the hell is going on here? 2017-2018 Hand cut paper in wood box Gil Scullion’s conceptual text-based work has been featured in exhibi...

Where do we come from? Where are we going? What the hell is going on here? 2017-2018 Hand cut paper in wood box Gil Scullion’s conceptual text-based work has been featured in exhibi...

Where do we come from? Where are we going? What the hell is going on here? 2017-2018 Hand cut paper in wood box Gil Scullion’s conceptual text-based work has been featured in exhibi...

Where do we come from? Where are we going? What the hell is going on here? 2017-2018 Hand cut paper in wood box Gil Scullion’s conceptual text-based work has been featured in exhibi...

Where do we come from? Where are we going? What the hell is going on here? 2017-2018 Hand cut paper in wood box Gil Scullion’s conceptual text-based work has been featured in exhibi...

Lovelace’s Tribute 2018 sung by Christina Tsers This installation is in honor of Ada Lovelace, generally recognized as the first computer programmer. Lovelace was the daughter of ...

Fever Songs is an interactive public sound installation project that brings together the vocal traditions of many religions, creating an active sonic experience that explores spiritu...

Steve Baris is interested in the interconnections of the built environment and spatial experience. His artwork is a response to a largely overlooked type of landscape that is emerg...

In Baker’s work, there is solace in the geometry of fundamentals, and a practice that focuses on the ephemeral nature of paper and the ease of its transportability, which allows he...

Weaving is a form of drawing, of plotting and connecting lines. Fabricating a three-dimensional, transparent object using thin strips of paper with differing colors on either side re...

Weaving is a form of drawing, of plotting and connecting lines. Fabricating a three-dimensional, transparent object using thin strips of paper with differing colors on either side re...

Joseph Fucigna is a multi-media artist whose work is rooted in process, play and the innate qualities of the materials used. Through experimentation, play and innovation he creates sculptures, paintings and drawings that are known for their power to transform materials, inventiveness and odd but suggestive subject matter. The ultimate goal is to create an artwork that is a perfect balance between suggestive content, and the formal qualities of the material that allow both to be active participants. Joseph Fucigna received his Masters of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He also attended the Triangle Workshop in Pine Plains, NY and worked with the renowned sculptor Sir Anthony Caro and critic Clement Greenberg. Fucigna is a full-time Professor of Art at Norwalk Community College and is the Chair of the Studio Arts Program. Fucigna has also taught in the Art Department at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Presently, he resides and works in Weston, CT. Fucigna has exhibited nationally including shows at the Fitchburg Art Museum in Massachusetts, Real Art Ways in Connecticut, the United Nations, Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in Connecticut, the New York State Museum in Albany, NY and the Burchfield Art Center in Buffalo NY. He has had one-person exhibitions at the Fred Giampietro Gallery, Sculpture Barn, Norwalk Community College Art Gallery, Artist Space New Haven and the Bannister...

Joseph Fucigna is a multi-media artist whose work is rooted in process, play and the innate qualities of the materials used. Through experimentation, play and innovation he creates sculptures, paintings and drawings that are known for their power to transform materials, inventiveness and odd but suggestive subject matter. The ultimate goal is to create an artwork that is a perfect balance between suggestive content, and the formal qualities of the material that allow both to be active participants. Joseph Fucigna received his Masters of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He also attended the Triangle Workshop in Pine Plains, NY and worked with the renowned sculptor Sir Anthony Caro and critic Clement Greenberg. Fucigna is a full-time Professor of Art at Norwalk Community College and is the Chair of the Studio Arts Program. Fucigna has also taught in the Art Department at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Presently, he resides and works in Weston, CT. Fucigna has exhibited nationally including shows at the Fitchburg Art Museum in Massachusetts, Real Art Ways in Connecticut, the United Nations, Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in Connecticut, the New York State Museum in Albany, NY and the Burchfield Art Center in Buffalo NY. He has had one-person exhibitions at the Fred Giampietro Gallery, Sculpture Barn, Norwalk Community College Art Gallery, Artist Space New Haven and the Bannister...

Levan Mindiashvili, in his second major exhibition, will debut works from a new project entitled “The Color Of The Sky” in which he examines the issues concerning identity politics f...

Levan Mindiashvili, in his second major exhibition, will debut works from a new project entitled “The Color Of The Sky” in which he examines the issues concerning identity politics f...

Levan Mindiashvili, in his second major exhibition at ODETTA, will debut works from a new project entitled “The Color Of The Sky” in which he examines the issues concerning identity ...

Radioluminescence is the phenomenon by which light is produced in a material by bombardment with ionizing radiation and can be used as a low-level light source for night illumination of instruments or signage or other applications where light must be produced for long periods without external energy sources. Radioluminescent paint used to be used for clock hands and instrument dials...

Radioluminescence is the phenomenon by which light is produced in a material by bombardment with ionizing radiation and can be used as a low-level light source for night illumination of instruments or signage or other applications where light must be produced for long periods without external energy sources. Radioluminescent paint used to be used for clock hands and instrument dials...

Weaving is a form of drawing, of plotting and connecting lines. Fabricating a three-dimensional, transparent object using thin strips of paper with differing colors on either side re...

Levan Mindiashvili, in his second major exhibition at ODETTA, will debut works from a new project entitled “The Color Of The Sky” in which he examines the issues concerning identity ...

Radioluminescence is the phenomenon by which light is produced in a material by bombardment with ionizing radiation and can be used as a low-level light source for night illumination of instruments or signage or other applications where light must be produced for long periods without external energy sources. Radioluminescent paint used to be used for clock hands and instrument dials...

Weaving is a form of drawing, of plotting and connecting lines. Fabricating a three-dimensional, transparent object using thin strips of paper with differing colors on either side re...