New York
Cecilia de Torres, Ltd.
Elias Crespin is a 21st-century wizard in a virtual Oz. In “Parallels,” the New York debut of his kinetic sculpture, he dazzled viewers with works consisting of simple lines and shapes. At first glance, they appeared to be suspended in space, their movements the whim of a capricious breeze. But nature was nowhere present. Crespin’s gravity-defying lines, pentagrams, and circles, fabricated from copper, brass, and stainless steel, hang from nearly invisible nylon threads and take their cues from the hidden computerized motors to which they are attached. A software designer and consultant with a degree in computer science from Venezuela’s Central University, Crespin is a self-taught artist whose only formal brush with fine art came from his two famous grandparents: graphic artist Gerd Leufert (1914–98) and kinetic artist Gertrude Goldschmidt (1912–94), better known as Gego. As a kid, Crespin spent many hours helping his grandmother in her studio. Later, he was influenced by Jesús Rafael Soto. …see the entire review in the print version of April’s Sculpture magazine.
