Ginny Ruffner’s role in the early years of the Pilchuck Glass School and inspirational recovery from a severe car accident in 1991 have kept her close to the hearts of many cultural observers in the Pacific Northwest, so, of course, the installation of her new, 27-foot-tall, almost 10,000-pound, mechanized sculpture in downtown Seattle has generated
Gregory Barsamian and the Flying Dream
Gregory Barsamian’s work exists in a profound confrontation with reality. Theatrical in the sense that it takes place in a darkened space before a passively engaged audience, his sculpture relies almost completely on the viewer, because what the viewer sees, seemingly fully present and tangible, is, in fact, not there.
The Karen and Robert Duncan Collection of Contemporary Sculpture
A vaguely anthropomorphic structure of colossal semi-circles, triangles, and projecting masts, Fletcher Benton’s painted steel Balanced/Unbalanced towers above a nearby fence line and stream of passing cars as if beckoning in an amiable gesture of asymmetrical geometry.
Monumental Collaborations: A Conversation with Patricia Leighton and Del Geist
Patricia Leighton and Del Geist, who are married and call New York home, have been making public art for more than 25 and 35 years, respectively. They have developed major site-specific works in the United States, Europe, and most recently, South Korea, where they each created new sculptures for the Jeju Museum of Art, and
Tasking Beauty: Steven Emmanuel
Steven Emmanuel’s sculptures are restrained, understated, and cerebral, built on a simple conceptual foundation and culminating in exquisite form. As if fabricated by a craftsman, these intellectually conceived pieces are as beautiful as they are thought-provoking.
Thomas Sayre and the Sculpture of Place
Thomas Sayre is surveying River Reels, a pair of 20-foot-tall earth castings that he created in 1999. They’re perfectly round circles of rust-colored concrete, 12 to 18 inches thick, the width of a backhoe bucket.
Connecting Rhythms: A Conversation with Radcliffe Bailey
A sculptor of emotional intensity and formal experimentation, Radcliffe Bailey has been a leading artistic voice in the exploration of African American racial identity for more than 20 years. His largest exhibition to date, “Memory as Medicine,” which is on view at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio from June 6 through September 12,
Tracking Points In Space: A Conversation with John Dreyfuss
To navigate the streamlined sculptures of John Dreyfuss, one glides over gentle swells, negotiating attenuated ridges or sudden apertures before the undulations pick up again. At times, the shifts in plane barely pass notice; at others, they induce a vertiginous thrill.
Hauntings: Susan Hiller
A pioneer of multimedia installation art in the 1980s, Susan Hiller went on to create a complex body of work that subverts our understanding of reality, offering an intellectual investigation into the darkest recesses of the human imagination.
From the Dirt: Corin Hewitt
Since 2007 Corin Hewitt has produced a series of evolving works that blend sculpture, photography, and performance. The most recent of these appeared at the Laurel Gitlin Gallery in New York last year, and a new iteration is scheduled to open at the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art in January 2013.
