Kranzberg Exhibition at Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis

Tuesday, 30 May 2006 10:12

St. Louis, MO – The Kranzberg Exhibition Series at Laumeier Sculpture Park opens on June 9.  This year, the exhibition will feature two talented, emerging St. Louis artists: John Watson and Andrea Green.  The exhibition continues through September 3, 2006.

John Watson is a St. Louis-based sculptor who was born in Indianapolis, Indiana.  He received his BFA from Webster University in St. Louis in 1997, and his MFA in Sculpture from the University of Maryland in 2001.  He has shown his work in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Georgia.

Watson describes his work this way: “Cobbled together from pieces of used wood, debris, and drywall screws, my work references architecture…  The pieces in this exhibition pursue my interest in structurally absurd, obsessively built objects.  Their ever-expanding size moves away from previous sculptures scaled at just a few inches to pieces that occupy hundreds of cubic feet. By working toward affecting the space of the room itself and beyond discreet object making, I am pushing the peculiarity of the forms and emphasizing both the obsessive act of making and seeming impossibility of the objects.”  

Andrea Green lives and works in St. Louis.  She received her BFA from the Tyler School of Art of Temple University in Pennsylvania in 2001, and her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 2003.  She has exhibited throughout St. Louis, and also works as a curatorial assistant at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

Green’s gossamer sculptures combine human fragments with preservation.  She chooses her materials carefully, preferring clothing with an “aura of nostalgia,” her own saliva and breath, and a unique blend of flesh-colored wax.  Green’s preference for ephemeral materials aligns with her interest in memory and loss, and transforming the ordinary into an intimate encounter.  The artist states, “The ephemeral nature of our existence such as breathing, skin shedding, hair growth, and impressions left behind, are all evidence of the body’s continuous state of flux.  My work attempts to encapsulate traces of existence; what cannot necessarily be seen or permanent.  The materials used function as metaphors for the body that will continuously change over time until it withers and all that is left are its remains and the aura of what once was.”

The Kranzberg Exhibition Series is generously supported by Nancy and Kenneth Kranzberg and focuses on artists in the St. Louis region. Laumeier Sculpture Park’s Director, Glen Gentele, said, “The Kranzberg Exhibition Series is about providing artists the opportunity to experiment and expand their studio practice.  John Watson and Andrea Green are creating bold and unusual installations for this exhibition.”  This is the fourth year of the Kranzberg Exhibition Series at Laumeier Sculpture Park.

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