NYAB Event - Rob Spinazzola Exhibition

Rob Spinazzola Exhibition

Orchard Windows Gallery

This event has ended.

The Orchard Windows Gallery presents solo exhibition of mid-career artist Robert Spinazzola. This presentation is 10 pieces created using African symbols shaped in his unique style of recycled and welded steel.

"The greatest influence in my work has been my love of the music of Motown and the sculpture of traditional African wood sculpture that I saw at the Detroit Institute of Arts, near the Wayne State University campus where I lived as an undergraduate. In the 1960's, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, The Temptations, Smokey and the Miracles and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas scorched the charts and blazed an imprint on my soul for which I will be forever be blessed. This show will celebrate those two indelible influences on my art".

This show includes Spinazzola's standing Senufu inspired birds and Bambara inspired antelope forms as well as wall mounted works. The Senufu people of the Ivory Coast create large beautiful sculptures of Hornbill birds, believed to be their mythical ancestors. Often seen as meter-high stand-alone sculptures or worn as headdresses, they are used as symbols of fertility. Carved generally with large flat protective wings, the Porpianong birds have beaks that touch their pregnant stomachs, symbolic of the male and female duality, insuring tribal continuity. The Senufu inspired sculptures SAUVAGE B.1, B.3 and B.6, resonate their African conceptual origins. The latest piece, SAUVAGE B.6 closely resembles traditional Porpianong style except for the house figures on the wings. SAUVAGE B.1 and SAUVAGE B.3 represent an abstracted conceptual expression derived from the connections made between African traditional cultures, and Mr. Spinazzola's own youth experiences in Detroit.

The wooden Chiwara from the Bambara people of Mali represent the antelope form. These are used in initiation rituals and dances to teach young Bamana men social value. When carving the works, bent or straight horns represent either the male or female essence. The forms themselves are breathtaking and dynamic.* They appear as reserved and powerful, much like early Egyptian stone carvings, but with warmth resonating through their organic nature.

SAUVAGE I.1 and I.3, refer to the basic the basic Bambara antelope form. Drawing from his Detroit origins, Spinazzola uses recycled tool and automobile parts as his pallet. He cuts, molds and then welds the figures. Finally, the surface is finished in oil to coalesce all the different elements together. The automobile is a recurring theme and a symbol of the rite of passage into adulthood for American youth: a powerful cultural motif from 1960's Motown culture.

Robert Spinazzola has continued to create sculpture from recycled steel since beginning work in a Cass Corridor, Detroit studio in 1975. All of his work is constructed from 100% recycled metal and has been a key element of his 35-year career. The sculptures are all labeled with the title of Sauvage, a link to Detroit's early French history.

* Sources: A History of Art in Africa / Africa - The Art of a Continent / The Tribal Art of Africa / The Dance, Art and Ritual of Africa