LONGHORN (8Wx8Dx8.5H)

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on May 30, 2022 at 2:38pm

Curator’s Comments:

Hello Dennis, thank you for inviting me to comment on your new piece entitled Longhorn. I’d like to think I’ve become quite familiar with your studio practice over the years, but admit that I’m often taken by surprise at the development of your sculptures in particular. This fresh piece retains some familiar elements and materials from what I perceive to be in your (prolific) body of work, but the components are separated in an arrangement that appears to expand the spatial grouping originated in Convergences. I see more negative, empty space between the painted aluminum pieces, setting up a palpable tension rather than a smoothly stacked or interlocking structure. Longhorn contains solid primary hues, and the lighter tints of the smaller forms impart even more hierarchal emphasis on the large blue triangular focus. The intersection of the blue cylinder through the orange circle, and the thinner intersecting rods still imply a mechanical relationship, but without the cantilevered extensions I’ve come to expect from your constructions. The marble base is relatively understated, and I view it as a true support, separate from the sculptural installation. It occurs to me that this non-objective, arguably minimalistic work has a faint nostalgic quality, as it underscores the physicality of a hand-worked machine-age, rather than a fragment of a larger scale industrial complex, or digital advancement.  I also find it interesting that the most gestural and expressive marks are reserved for your drawings. As always, thank you for sharing your work.