Nature + Tech = Art
What Was And Is: Gillian Jagger at David Lewis
INSIDES: HOWARD KALISH AT SIDESHOW GALLERY
Howard Kalish’s sculpture isn’t meant to be seen from only the front or the back; better to view it from the inside out.
Insides, on display at Williamsburg’s Sideshow Gallery through November 2, exhibits Kalish’s idiosyncratic, transparent sculpture. Kalish has a reputable background as a sculptor. He studied at the New York Studio School and Cooper Union, received a National Endowment for the Arts in Sculpture, has taught at N.Y.U. and several other academies, and has sat on the Executive Board for the New York Sculptors’ Guild. His public works can be found all over the U.S.
Kalish’s sculpture reflects an artistic maturity one would expect from a man of his experience. Built from the core outwards, the pieces in Insides reflect Kalish’s desire to express in a finished work the nature of its genesis and growth. Some of the pieces, like Inside 1, or Inside 8 (Mandala) are abstract, representing nothing outside themselves. Others, including Little Universe, Inspiration and Inside10 (Sea Leaves) are built out of more familiar forms indicating human figures, leaves, or sheaves of wheat.
Howard Kalish, Inside 1, Resin, 24"x24"x20". (c) 2014 Howard Kalish.
Howard Kalish, Inside 8 (Mandala),painted steel, 21"x21"x21". (c) 2014 Howard Kalish.
Howard Kalish, Little Universe, resin stell and paint, 21"x21"x21". (c) 2014 Howard Kalish. Howard Kalish, Inspiration, resin steel and paint, 21"x21"x21". (c) 2014 Howard Kalish.
Howard Kalish, Inside 10 (Sea Leaves), urethane acrylic, 18"x22"x19". (c) 2014 Howard Kalish.,
Yet in all of these there is an undeniable sense of the natural world, of development and expansion. Kalish, who is profoundly influenced by nature, works on each piece by “following principles…which are analogous to the way forms are made in the universe.” And because the works are “open,” conveying their internal structure as well as their final layers, they seem to breathe and alter as the viewer circles them.
Insides perfectly melds Kalish’s conceptual and visual curiosities. His interest in natural formations and the dependence of finished form on creative principle is evident not only in the press release, but in the works themselves. This is a show by an artist who thinks clearly, crafts clearly, and makes a conceptual statement in an aesthetically beautiful way.
Insides is on display at the Sideshow Gallery, 319 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, through November 2, 2014.
All photos courtesy and quotation courtesy www.howardkalish.com.
-Aaron Mayper
http://www.howardkalish.com/about/
G.O.S. Highlight: Andy Barrett
The Seaworthy Sculpture of David McQueen
Robots Invade New York in Nam June Paik Exhibit