The Southampton Arts Center has partnered with curator Cheryl Sokolow to bring contemporary outdoor sculpture to the SAC grounds throughout the summer. The exhibition, titled Organic Abstraction: Contemporary Outdoor Sculpture, explores the materials, processes and techniques of nine internationally acclaimed sculptors gathered in museums working within a formalist paradigm.
The show will be installed at the SAC on April 25 and will remain on view throughout the summer season. Participating artists include: Joel Perlman, Hans Van de Bovenkamp, Kevin Barrett, John Van Alstyn, Norman Mooney, Arlene Slavin, Carol Eisner, Carol Ross, and Isobel Folb Sokolow.
“We are truly delighted to be able to collaborate with Cheryl to bring world-class sculpture to the grounds of the Southampton Arts Center for all our community and visitors to come and enjoy,” said Christina Mosaides Strasfield, Executive director of Southampton Arts Centre.
With an emphasis on syntax and form rather than subject matter, the handling of the material and the artists’ processes become the subject of the work; each piece is most immediately identifiable and valued by its most basic physical attributes.
Works of art that are seemingly devoid of narrative (or abstract) have historically been celebrated as the purest form of art, as critics such as Clement Greenberg and others have noted. Material, shape, form, composition and surface give rise to an unadulterated or “pure” aesthetic experience. Within this idiom, notions of nature connect and inspire each work by virtue of material, form, or concept.
The connection to transient nature is seen in the sculptures of Norman Mooney and Arlene Slavin. “Bloom No. Mooney’s 4” captures the subtleties of form, pattern and sequences found in nature; its exquisite, highly polished surface provides a mirror in the natural environment. Slavin’s translucent and brightly colored “Insections” are juxtaposed to capture sunlight with ever-changing color saturation, creating a reflective third dimension.
Folb Sokolov’s Midnight Sun of Copernicus references the natural phenomena of the Big Bang theory, which her process powerfully mimics as fire-welded forms explode into existence. Barrett’s “Embrace” fuses organic forms and rhythms rooted in both the human form and the landscape with impeccable grace and welding technique. Van Alstyn’s Sisyphus Circle brings together industrial metal objects with natural river stone, combining the two literally and metaphorically. Nature’s heavy stone is suspended and seemingly weightless at the head of its clever and skillful assembly process.
These concepts are emphasized by the natural essence of the outdoor atmosphere, where the synergy between nature, art and the viewer is both continuous and evolving; time of day, scale, perspective, light, sky color, cloud movement, and the artwork’s proximity to trees and to each other are vital to the viewer’s sense of place, space, and discovery.
Curator Cheryl Sokolov has over 20 years of experience in the art world with a BA and MA in Art History. She launched C Fine Art in 2009 to present established artists with a focus on formal abstraction in contemporary sculpture and dimensional art. She was the founder and curator of the “Unusual Ground Sculpture Series” organized by Bridge Gardens for six seasons.
“Our appreciation for excellence in craftsmanship and insistence on originality lead us to artists who masterfully craft their work, reaching far beyond the limits of their chosen materials,” said Sokolov. “We are thrilled to collaborate with SAC, making large-scale outdoor sculptures accessible to the community.”
Southampton Arts Center is at 25 Jobs Lane in Southampton. Visit southamptonartscenter.org for details.
