Curator’s
Statement

Three years ago, I curated an exhibition at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art which brought together seven sculptors whose processes, sense of esthetics, and media were similar to my own. In Chicago: The Third Dimension, Michael Baur, Barry Heheman, Ruth Duckworth, Michael Dunbar, Dann Nardi, Diane Simpson and I represented a generation of Chicago sculptors who shared a respect for materials and craftsmanship and ensured the quality of their work by making it themselves.

The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art has generously given me the opportunity to bring attention to a new group of artists, each of whom continues the tradition of craftsmanship and presentation. Through aluminum, steel, glass, stone, concrete, and wood, the seven emerging artists featured in this exhibition take materials common to construction and fabricate their personal sense of space. Several of the artists in this exhibition use the material itself as a source of inspiration. Sonya Baysinger, who was the 1995 recipient of an Arts Midwest a National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship, uses fallen trees and driftwood, a medium known to artists through the ages, to project her unique esthetic. Baysinger's sculptures illustrate metamorphosis: inertia to motion, heavy to light, rigid to pliable, whole to part. Bestowed with a special sense of movement, her works appear as active as the once live trees from which they were created.

Others transform the medium they use into specific visual forms. Self-examination is the catalyst for Dessa Kirk's current series, in which Cadillac body parts, including exhaust manifolds, oil pumps, and tail pipes, are transformed into delicate flower petals. Kirk's metal flowers are modeled after stargazer lilies and proportional to her own body. Like most of her previous work, they examine the delicate balance so difficult to achieve between the two genders.

The revival of the use of wood in sculpture is apparent in this exhibition. Intent on examining the relationship between that medium and the human form, William Grant's work combines the physical mass of the materials he uses and his intuitive, artistic expression. Using traditional carving techniques, he takes his cue from the log's natural form, and translates it for us. Left open to interpretation by the viewer, his work evokes the heroic anthropomorphic figures of the late Henry Moore.

Several of the artists' experience as fabricators and builders is reflected in their sculpture. Robert McDermott's works, which are tempered primarily by architecture, evoke logic and structure. Consisting, generally, of wood, steel, and concrete, his sculptures evolve from lines, forms, and blueprints, often reflecting something he saw or made as a construction contractor. John Adduci, a fabricator for other artists as well as public projects, carves aluminum, giving a rigid material a wonderful plastic quality. Combining a very traditional concept using modern materials and tools, his aluminum pieces emit an almost medieval quality. Derick Malkemus casts his own pieces in concrete, aluminum, and iron-creating forms that simultaneously recall ancient totems and futuristic industrial remnants. Never direct representations, his pieces distill a variety of images and per- sonal interests, including landscape, architecture, geology, geography, organic and mechanical forms.

Joe Agati's pieces-executed in glass, steel, and stone-are by far the most minimal in this exhibition. His use of forms and reflective surfaces challenge our perception of space. The reductive nature and visual simplicity of his work recalls that of Donald Judd. Agati, however, in adding the element of reflection, provides multiple dimensions and varying surfaces with single planes and lines.

Unlike contemporaries Jeff Koons and Luis Jimenez, whose current fiberglass works imply mass production, the artists included in this exhibition clearly build with their own hands. Direct descendants of the Chicago sculptural tradition-one which values methods and materials and finds meaning in form and fabrication-they honor Chicago's industrial history. At the same time, each of them enjoys a direct, intimate relationship to their chosen material and imbues each piece they create with their own personal story. To date, these emerging artists have had limited exposure. This exhibition allows them to have the stage. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for these seven, each of whom has talent and drive.

Terrence Karpowicz