Expressionist Statues

This captivating folk art sculpture crafted in white plaster creatively explores the mysterious Arcturian aliens' world. The figure of the alien girl, with her elongated skull, exten...

Gail by Thomas Giebink larger than life wood art sculpture figure woman in chair "Thomas Giebink has been working on his “Circus Fantastical” series for 40 years, creating pieces that would fit into a world of his imagination. It all started with chairs. There was a chair in painting “Gail,” featuring and named for an ex for “obvious reasons.” When Giebink started to create relief-style copies of his paintings, the chair stood out. “When I took it apart, it was sort of squished,” he said from his studio east of Bozeman last month. His latest project, a pair of rocking chairs which seem to be about to tip forward while at rest, follow this vision. “I see all the big work as three-dimensionalized paintings,” he said. “Shadow Chair,” a piece currently on display at the Ecce Gallery in the Emerson Center was born from a shadow a chair made on the floor. Giebink decided he would try to create a three-dimensional version in wood, capturing the shape as quickly as possible before the light could change. “I don’t think my landlord appreciated that I used magic marker on the floor,” Giebink said. Yet his chair has been appreciated, as has Giebink’s desire to create pieces which seem both fantastic and functional. He talks about the countless hours over five months spent trying to make the off-kilter chairs rock correctly, the sanding and shaving of each piece, the splines and dowels holding it together. It’s not a chair as we know it, but the basis of construction is there. “It’s really unorthodox woodworking,” he said. “But if you’re going to work in wood, you should work in wood.” A friend once told him he should make the pieces like sculptures, out of clay. Giebink’s vision, however, relies on creating a version of reality recalling the original. Giebink likes art “you can move around in,” perhaps inspired by one of his professors at the University of Iowa. Byron Burford...

France, early 20th century. Pair of two lifesize sculptures, brother and sister, the boy sitting cross-legged and the girl on a stump holding a pla...