“Give
and Take: USF/SCULPTURE/2003” presents 6 Bay Area artists whose works explore
the give and take of images as they collide, puncture, and move apart,
engaging things darkly beautiful. In selecting artists for the 4th annual
outdoor sculpture show, I veered away from the traditional outdoor sculptor to
find artists whose works are not always sculptural or solely intended for the
outdoors. In fact, one of the pieces is located inside the library while
several others hover near buildings, using the buildings’ architecture as
framework. Instead, I was drawn to the introspective nature of these artists’
studies and the ways in which they spoke about their pieces as examples of
friction, broken surfaces, isolation and longing. The title and theme of the
exhibition comes from this repeated look at interiors and exteriors,
collisions and separations, that suggest humanity’s lost connections with each
other and the earth and our yearning—sometimes quiet, sometimes violent—to
reconnect.
Strange Company: A Creative Response to
"Give and Take" (pdf format)
By Glori Simmons
Artist Biographies
Gail
Caulfield
“Rhea and the Heart of the World”
Ceramic with Steel Base, 1990
“Millenium Man”
Ceramic with Steel Base, 1990
Gail
Caulfield started her career as a potter in 1974 and has shown her work in
galleries throughout northern California. She received a MA in ceramics from
San Francisco State University in 1980. In the 1990s, she went on to become an
art psychotherapist. She states about her work, “A recurrent theme centers on
the contemporary human relationship to the earth; the effects of our presence,
our interdependent vulnerability and our perceptions of mortality.”
Deborah
Childress
“Plate VI”
Cast gypsum cement, 2003
Recent
sculptures by Deborah Childress are begun by creating a mold out of clay and
working the mold rather than sculpting the positive. She states, “working in
the negative has long been an interesting process for me…. [The works] are
done fairly rapidly and the result is usually something of a surprise with
imperfection and the lack of control an achievement.” Childress studied at the
University of Santa Cruz and has received numerous grants and awards.
Cheryl Coon
“Organism”
Net, fish line, weights, 2003
Since
receiving her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1992, Cheryl Coon
has shown her work widely on the west coast and has received fellowships from
Djerassi, the Vermont Studio Center, and Villa Montalvo. Coon often works with
found texts and materials she collects from nature. Inspired by trips to Baja,
“Organism” brings viewers to the water’s edge to reflect on our relationship
with nature and science, and the many things—human-made and natural—that the
waves bring in and take away.
Peter Eller
“Suitcases”
Polished cast concrete
2003
Originally from Bulgaria, Peter Eller began showing his mixed media paintings
in Munich, Germany in the 1980s and 90s. He later moved to San Francisco to
earn a BA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, receiving his MFA in
2003. His work has been awarded several prizes and has been shown widely in
Northern California and abroad. Eller explains that his work engages materials
in order to examine “the everyday object, seized upon and metaphorically
transformed.”
Bill Ivey
“Distance”
Cement, Redwood Tree, Scale Model Figurine, Scope
2003
Returning to Texas this fall, Bill Ivey has lived in San Francisco since 1996
and received a MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2000. His
works—paintings, photography, and installations—have shown in exhibitions in
Spain, Portugal, and Canada as well as in Texas and California. Currently his
work examines “two converging notions: that of an architecture serving as host
to changing and transient functions; and the peculiar idea of humans intending
to host nature.”
Ann Weber
“Slow Life”
Cardboard, staples, polyurethane, 1999
Ann
Weber began making pottery while on the East Coast and went on to earn a MFA
from the California College of Arts and Crafts. She began working with
cardboard in 1991 as a way to create large forms without the weight and
“cumbersome process of clay.” She explains “Slow Life” as “a reference to
relationships and how they collide, puncture, come together and become more
powerful as two forms rather than separate entities.”
