Walt Swales "WALLWORKS (CASTINGS: OF MEN & BEASTS)"
Amos Eno Gallery
This event has ended.
Historically, my work has dealt with those issues than define us as human beings: procreation, sexuality, vulnerability, religiosity, genesis, mortality. The forms have been minimally based, as severe as the issues themselves.
In my current body of work, a sequel to a previous set of concerns, I deal with another aspect of what it is to be human: play. And such an issue is congruent with a viewpoint about art making: art is adult play. Castings: of Men and Beasts is the literal thrust of my forthcoming exhibition at the Amos Eno Gallery (April 7-May 1) in regard to imagery exploited, but the show is formally rather than ideologically based. I have made molds of actual deer and replica human skulls, pulled waxes, and played, creatively, intellectually and physically. Formal issues like positive and negative space, texture, representational, abstraction are the ground for the works, as I developed them quickly and on an intuit/expressionist basis. I have sought tension and resolution with the designs of the works. The waxes were ultimately translated into bronze through the lost-wax casting process.
I then manipulate the surfaces of the castings with paint. I am not a colorist or surface designer by inclination. But I want surface design and color to be issues in this series,
As an academic exercise and as means to excite three-dimensional forms executed through a very traditional and historically significant process. As with the forms themselves, I trust myself with the painted surfaces. My conclusion: form tells the sculptor when a piece is finished. Surface is much more ambiguous, elusive. And such, perhaps, is the nature of both life and art.
Media
Schedule
from April 07, 2010 to May 01, 2010
Opening Reception on 2010-04-10 from 14:00 to 17:00