Events & Classes  Sculpture in Motion - About the Artists
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Sculpture in Motion:
Art Choreographed by Nature
Exhibition on view from May 3 to October 31
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The career of French gallerist/landscape designer Brigitte Micmacker is focused on fine art sculpture. She and her husband operate Sculpturesite Gallery in the heart of the San Francisco Museum district. Their gallery is complemented by an adjacent public plaza where large scale works, including kinetics, are displayed in an urban outdoor setting. Micmacker’s extensive knowledge of contemporary and modern sculpture is widely recognized.
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Zachary Coffin - Atlanta, GA www.zacharycoffin.com
Title: Rockspinner6, 2007 (kinetic force: human, solar)
Zachary Coffin’s interactive sculptures use engineering to defy one's expectations of gravity and physics. An Atlanta native and current resident, Coffin holds a degree from Cooper Union, New York. He has lived and worked in several cities throughout the United States and in Switzerland. In addition, to creating a series of Rockspinners-- massive boulders that can be spun by a small child-- he has installed monumental stone and metal sculptures such as the Temple of Gravity and Colossus for Burning Man. Coffin's work is also in numerous public and private collections, including Technorama Science Museum, Switzerland and the Birmingham Museum of Art.
Lin Emery - New Orleans, LA
Title: Rocker and Butterfly (kinetic force: air currents)
Internationally recognized sculptor Lin Emery creates kinetic sculptures that interpret the
lyrical beauty of the natural world. Emery’s sculptures are abstracted from nature and
give visible form to the energies moving through the environment. Movement or kinetic
activity, whose aim is to express harmonic patterns visually, is the central element for
Emery. She relies on air to move her work, creating constant variety and signifying that
nature is ever-changing. Emery has explored sculpture powered by water, wind and
magnets. Her polished aluminum abstract work gracefully blows in the wind, resembling
the ballet dancing of which she is so enamored. Of her work, it is written: “Her works are
about grace, form and motion with an unsaid spiritual connection between artist, metal
and nature.”
David Fried - Düsseldorf, Germany www.davidfried.com
Title: Self Organizing Still Life (SOS), Terra Incognita, (kinetic force: sound, magnetic)
2008, Courtesy Gallery Sara Tecchia Roma New York
In his acoustically-stimulated kinetic interactive sculptures, David Fried reveals
complex dynamic relationships and conceptual explorations. These highly symbolic
motifs, universally recognizable and fundamental common denominators, are rendered
with stark hints of the artificial and engineered. Processing these factors into artistic
unity, Fried successfully fuses minimalism and conceptual art with aesthetic and philosophy
to create works that transcend boundaries. Art follows life and life follows art.
Brad Howe - Malibu, CA www.bradhowe.com
Title: Ropa Mansa and Spindle (kinetic force: air currents)
Brad Howe’s sculptures are composed with vitality and celebrate beauty, as he strives
to expose energized moments between connection and disconnection, and between strain
and serenity. Built on the tradition of geometric abstraction, his playful mobiles, wall
hangings and freestanding sculptures combine the dynamic planar relationships and solid
coloration associated with post-cubist modernism. Howe approaches his process from
ever-changing perspectives, and it allows his stainless steel, steel or aluminum pieces to
take unpredictable directions. His works have been placed in collections in 32 countries,
including an 80 foot mobile for the Georgia International Convention Center.
Sachiko Kodama - Tokyo, Japan www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp
Title: Morpho Tower, 2008 (kinetic force: electro-magnetic)
Influenced by science and the natural world from an early age, Japanese Artist Sachiko
Kodama began work on a ferrofluid art project in 2000 that she named “Protrude, Flow”.
The dynamic movement of liquids is the theme of this project. Dr. Kodama’s interactive
work employs electromagnets and magnetically-charged microfine particles suspended in
water or oil to create her stunning and completely original moving sculptural art forms.
Jeffery Laudenslager – Ecinitas, CA www.laudenslagersculpture.com
Titles: Hokusai, 2008 and Mikoshi, 2008 (kinetic force: air currents)
Jeffery Laudenslager’s dynamic kinetic creations throw caution to the wind in a
perfectly choreographed dance to the rhythm of the universe. Pursuing his obsessions,
the principle characteristics he explores are ambiguity and illusion. His context and form
have had great diversity and form over the years. Throughout his career he has sought
the most economical means at his disposal to convey his ideas. This reductive effort has
resulted in an understated elegance and grace. Because Laudenslager relies on unexpected
principles of geometry, even his static sculptures appear animated.
Kristina Lucas – Santa Rosa, CA www.thinkinglightly.com/lucas
Title: Masdevallia Extravaganza, 2008 (kinetic force: air currents)
The installed works of Kristina Lucas merge architectural sensibility with artistic
vision. Within a structured space, she presents stimuli that include aspects of randomness,
change, light reflection and refraction, and observer movement. Imagination and
humor define the configurations, relating to how each space is occupied by inhabitants,
visitors and passers-by. Her sculptures are metaphors of things coming together, bursting
forth, exploding in space, highlighting the potential of physical energy.
Moto Ohtake – Santa Cruz, CA www.motoohtake.com Title: Airborne, 2008 (kinetic force: air currents)
Three recurring themes have played an important role in Moto Ohtake’s art making.
His life long interest in the anatomy of nature, on both a micro- and macroscopic level,
includes such forms as the helix, the torus, the sphere and crystalline structures. The
second is his study of the cosmos and the galactic bodies. The third theme is archeology,
specifically relics or remnants of the past. Ohtake’s abstract interpretations of these
themes juxtapose opposing factors such as chaos and order, simplicity and complexity,
and gravity and balance. Illusion is an important component of his work.
Susan Pascal Beran – San Francisco, CA www.pascalberan.com
Title: Searound, 2008, Starburst II E.N., 2008 (kinetic force: water)
Wind and Water Dragon, 2008
For close to 30 years, Susan Pascal Beran has created stunning kinetic sculptures. In
addition to her schooling at the Sorbonne, Connecticut College and Stanford University,
she studied with, then married and collaborated with Czechoslovakian artist Josef Beran.
After his death in 1986, she continued on, aspiring to the highest quality in the European tradition, while evolving into her own style. This style derives from a love of nature and its interplay of form and function. The ever-changing yet harmonious compositions evoke the animation of our living world. She creates her art to help people enjoy and celebrate their environments.
Roger Phillips – Albany, NY www.rogerphillips.com
Title: Figure 8 on Open Rectangle, 2006 (kinetic force: air currents)
Split Disk in Rectangular Frame, 2006
A large portion of Phillips’ work is wind-driven kinetic, made of stainless steel and
brightly painted aluminum plate. Calling himself a constructivist, Phillips intends that
viewers construct meaning in his work from their current knowledge structures, initiated
and directed by the learner. Simplicity and purity are achieved through meticulous engineering
and craftsmanship. His sculpture is never illustratrative, but strives to achieve the
absolute beauty of the geometric form. Moving elements are held top and bottom, so that
each moves in a 360 degree orbit around a vertical axis. In motion, the sculptures appear
light and airy as their glossy, colored surfaces reflect their natural surroundings.
Troy Pillow – Seattle, WA www.pillowstudios.com
Title: Circus Peanuts, 2005 (kinetic force: air currents)
Troy Pillow is interested in the connection that sculpture makes between people and
the environments in which they live. By studying the natural order and proportions found
in nature, he creates sculpture that has balance and simplicity. Utilizing wind and light as
energy sources, he enables his sculpture to be affected by its surroundings and become
part of the environment. Creating sculpture based on fundamentals gives a unique life to
his work, which is his way of connecting art to people.
Tim Prentice – West Cornwall, CT www.timprentice.com
Title: Yellow Zingers, 2008 and Easel Wind Frame, 2006 (kinetic force: air currents)
Tim Prentice focuses on the movement, rather than the object. His sculpture, created
from aluminum, stainless steel and Lexan, responds to the organic, whimsical and unpredictable
ways that air moves with soft, fluid and complex motion and sound. Prentice’s
inner engineer wants to minimize friction to make the air visible; the architect studies
matters of scale and proportion; the sailor wants to know the strength and direction of
the wind; the artist wants to understand its changing shape; the child wants to play.
Ralf Gschwend – Palm Beach, Florida & Geneva, Switzerland www.ralfonso.com
Title: Dance with the Wind, 2007 (kinetic force: air currents)
Ralfonso is a Swiss designer of monumental kinetic, air, light and water sculptures. His passion is the design and creation of large to monumental 3-dimensional kinetic and light sculptures that move in the wind and water. He also designs sound-sculptures, suspended mobiles as well as fountains. These iconic and unique designs are primarily site-specifically created. This sculpture is a model of his work commissioned for the Beijing Olympics. Ralfonso is a founder of
www.kinetic-art.org, promoting kinetic art and artists internationally
George Rickey (1907-2002) (kinetic force: air currents)
Title: Two Lines Oblique, Atlanta, 1969, Courtesy High Museum of Art
George Rickey, an American painter, sculptor and art historian, was also one of the
leading exponents in the field of kinetic art. Rickey’s primary interest was the study of
movement, its choreography and shape being the essence of kinetic art. He anticipated
that his sculptures, moved by the force of the air, would thus express its unpredictability
and variation. His works reflect his interest in movement and its relation to imbalance
and the equilibrating force of weight.
George Sherwood – Ipswich, MA www.georgesherwood.com
Title: Tendrils, Gingko Leaf Variation, 2007 (kinetic force: air currents)
George Sherwood’s sculpture explores the behavioral qualities and dynamic relationships
of objects in motion. The choreography of each piece is governed by a set of basic
movements, facilitated by rotating joints and aerodynamic surfaces. The wind provides
an unpredictable element of improvisation, while qualities of light, weather and the
landscape are integral to each sculpture. Sherwood develops fundamental physical forms
wherein shape and texture suggest movement. The combination of stainless steel, which
reflects surrounding seasonal color from the gardens, and movement, which creates
a playful connection to nature, is best viewed over extended periods to appreciate the
environmental interaction.
John Tyler – Bakersfield, CA www.sculpturesite.com
Title: Undulations, 2008 (kinetic force: air currents)
The better the balance, the lighter the breeze needed to obtain motion. John Tyler’s
sculpture makes visible the movement of the air as he explores the interaction between
balanced metallic forms and wind. Steel and stainless steel fabrications give the illusion
of weightlessness and random motion; combining diverse components of aerodynamics
and mathematics, Tyler employs non-parallel axis of rotation and resulting angle interactions
of counterweighted, compound pendulums. Tyler’s objects take on a life of their
own, both playful and serious.
To view all the sculptures in the exhibition, on sale to benefit, in part, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, click here. |
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