Larry Estridge ESSENCE

February 14-April 4, 2009

Larry Estridge’s solo exhibition, New Sculpture, will be on display at the Charest-Weinberg Gallery, from February 14th through April 4th, 2009. The opening reception will take place Saturday, February 14th 2009, from 7 – 10 PM during the Wynwood Gallery Walk.

In recent years, Estridge’s work has focused on abstract works in aluminum and steel, which build on his long-term fascination with primary forms in nature and their psychological resonance and reflection in diverse art-historical contexts. These clean, spare works employ metal sheet, plate and flat bar—largely two-dimensional materials—to create fully three-dimensional objects of archetypal content, in which the space within and between elements is critical.
February 14-April 4, 2009

In the current show, “Essence”, a gold-hued piece with ovoid form and beguiling interior spaces, sits upon an architectural/pop-inspired pedestal; “Star of the Sea” harkens back to Renaissance portraits of the Virgin; “Resting the Sword” is curiously evocative of African Art; and “Codex” references meso-American carvings. To make the work, the sculptor bends, folds and curves six-inch- and twelve-inch-wide metal strips, using a break and a slip roller, to fashion diverse elements, which are, typically, combined into more complex structures through improvisatory and chance operations.

In the evolutionary growth of this work, increasing complexity would seem to be the rule, involving the joining of an increasing number of pieces, some as long as twelve feet in length. The laborious refinements of the pieces and their polished, automotive paint finishes allow their complex, topological surfaces to actively play off one another, with changing light and vantage point. The presentation, however, is not without irony, at a time of American industrial decline and global economic uncertainty.

Although intimations of the sciences come into play in these pieces, as well as meditations on art history, they also conjure bits of personal history and dream, as sculptor explores a curved-and-bent realm of living, morphing forms.

February 14th, 2009 - April 4th, 2009