Sculpture—situated within the sensibilities of space, embodiment, and the physical world—offers a richly speculative arena for experimentation with materials and technology. The continuing expansion of practices reminds us that sculpture no longer resides in a world of “things”: contemporary physics now reformulates “solid” matter as process and flow, foundational concepts for art are now redefined
John McCracken: Materialist, Transcendentalist, Minimalist
Minimal art and Minimalism imply two different strains within the scope of contemporary American art. For the most part, Minimal art began in New York and was named there (Richard Wolheim, 1965) before it was formalized on the West Coast.
When Place Becomes Sculpture: A Conversation with Mauro Staccioli
Mauro Staccioli first received critical attention at the beginning of the 1970s with a group of “signs,” as he calls his works. For him, the location of these signs is of utmost importance—place becomes sculpture (in Francesca Pola’s phrase).
Yuriko Yamaguchi: Fragile Connections
Yuriko Yamaguchi’s studio feels like a tree house. A highly regarded conceptual sculptor whose work hangs in numerous galleries and museums, Yamaguchi works in a space above the garage of her suburban Virginia house. She occasionally takes tea breaks on a small deck attached to the high-ceilinged room, gazing out at the thick, trail-threaded woods.
Action and Spatial Engagement: A Conversation with Frank Stella
Frank Stella was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center in 2011. For a full list of Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, click here. Frank Stella, who is honored this year with the International Sculpture Center’s 2011 Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, will always be best remembered for his radical Black Paintings (1958-60), which consist of
Magdalena Abakanowicz: Allegories of Time
Magdalena Abakanowicz’s recent sculpture reveals a type of allegorical theater. Her well-known Walking Figures project an ironic expressive content while retaining a formal rigor. Paradoxically, these massive sculptural figurations imply a quiet anonymity. Headless and armless, the inscrutably vital, masculine figures mostly stand upright, modeled in a strident pose.
Inside the Worlds of the Dead: A Conversation with Christian Boltanski
Christian Boltanski’s ideas often germinate over time and address notions involving time. In 2005, he used his own heartbeat in a pitch-black void for a Paris exhibition. Heartbeats also provided a soundtrack for his recent large-scale installations in Paris, New York, and Milan and are being collected worldwide for Les Archives du Coeur (The Heart Archive), on
Yoshitomo Nara: Making Space for Misfits
Yoshitomo Nara and Takashi Murakami began to get international recognition at almost the same time, both admired for their childhood/pop culture imagery. Nara had a bit of a head start, particularly in Europe, since he was living in Germany from 1988 to 2000.
Nothing is More or Less Alive: A Conversation with Eduardo Kac
Since the early 1980s, Eduardo Kac (pronounced “Katz”) has created challenging combinations of the biological, the technological, and the linguistic, raising important questions about the cultural impact and ethical implications of biotechnologies. An innovator and pioneer of forms, he began experimenting in the pre-Web ’80s with works that used telerobotics—systems of remote communication linking software,
Strange Encounters in Space and Time: A Conversation with Lee Ufan
Lee Ufan is acclaimed for an innovative body of work that emphasizes process, materials, and the experiential engagement of viewer and site. Born in Seoul, Korea, he has lived in Japan since 1956 and now divides his time between Kamakura and Paris.
