20th-21st Century American Wood Sculpture

20th-21st Century American Wood Sculpture

Online information about 20th-21st Century American Sculpture from sources other than Resource Library

(above: Drawings of Kachina Dolls, Plate 11, from 1894 anthropology book Dolls of the Tusayan Indians by Jesse Walter Fewkes.)

A Cut Above: Wood Sculpture from the Gordon W. Bailey Collection is a 2016 exhibit at the High Museum of Art which says: "A Cut Above presents the varied approaches of a group of artists to a common material. From discarded or inexpensive manufactured board to naturally occurring branches, roots, and stumps, wood is widely available to artists without access to or interest in traditional art supplies." Accessed 12/18

A Far Country: Gaman Birds of Masato Wayne Sumida is a 2013 exhibit at the Armory Center for the Arts which says: "The Armory Center for the Arts is pleased to present a collection of hand-carved, hand-painted birds and other animals, made by Japanese national Masato Wayne Sumida while interned at Poston War Relocation Center in La Paz County, Arizona." Accessed 10/18

Art Now: Patrick Dougherty, an exhibit held September 18-December 9, 2007 at the Middlebury College Museum of Art. Accessed February, 2015.

Conrad Bakker: Art and Objecthood was a 2000 exhibit at the Sheldon Museum of Art featuring the contemporary realism wood sculptures of Conrad Bakker. Viewers may download the exhibition brochure. Accessed 1/17

Extra-Human: The Art of Michael Ferris is a 2021 exhibit at the Center for Art in Wood which says: "Trained as a painter, Ferris embraced sculpture twenty-five years ago and developed an inlay technique inspired by intarsia woodworking from his Middle-Eastern heritage. Ferris's unique approach to this historical process involves the reclaiming of discarded wood, a method informed by his environmental concerns. He further expands this traditional practice through the use of pigmented grout, which yields a color palette beyond wood's natural hues. The resulting inlaid patterns evoke Maori tattoos or the elaborate ornamentation of folk art." Accessed 1/22

Humaira Abid: Searching for Home is a 2020 exhibit at the Museum for Art in Wood which says: "Abid is well known for her unique visual language, which blends the discipline of traditional Mughal miniature painting and sculpture in wood. Her career-long decision to specialize in woodcarving, a male-dominated field, reflects her commitment to challenging stereotypes. The beauty and mastery of Abid's to-scale carvings of seemingly benign objects, ripe with subtext, belie the violence, cruelty, upheaval, and instability in society, especially that to which women are subject" Also see artist's website. Accessed 5/25

Paul Villinski: Passage is a 2017 exhibit at the Taubman Museum of Art which says: "A wooden glider reminiscent of the balsawood gliders of the artist's youth, Passage is scaled up to a wingspan of 33 feet and inhabited by 1,000 black butterflies. Both the structure of the plane and the butterflies haloing it are from reclaimed materials found on the streets of New York City, materials Villinski has used in his artistic practice for more than two decades." Also see artist's website Accessed 8/17

Patrick Dougherty, an exhibit held from October 19 - December 22, 2013 at The Fralin | University of Virginia Art Museum. Texts include labels. Accessed August, 2015.

Patrick Dougherty: Step Right Up is a 2017 exhibit at the Ackland Art Museum which says: "The large-scale piece - comprised of five individual stickwork sculptures - was constructed entirely of tree saplings and is on view in front of the Ackland Art Museum." Accessed 12/17

Spoons to Stir the Soul: The World of Norm Sartorius is a 2022 exhibit at the Center for Art in Wood which says: "The exhibition will include many of Sartorius's finest works, selected from some of the premier private and public collections in the United States. It will trace the dynamic evolution of the artist's creative expressions, from his earliest efforts as a professional woodworker in the 1970s, to his commitment to the spoon as a fine-art category in the 1980s and '90s, and culminating with his current mature vision, aesthetic refinement, and woodworking mastery -- all of which have produced a unique and deeply soul-stirring oeuvre of art-in-wood." Accessed 7/22

Stepping the Mast: Rob Millard-Mendez is a 2017 exhibit at the Giertz Gallery at Parkland College which says: "Millard-Mendez is currently chair of the Art and Design Department at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. As a woodworker and sculptor, his work often employs high craft but is also process-oriented and rich with historical references and personal narratives." Also see artist's website Accessed 11/17

William Kent - Saved from Silence is a 2018 exhibit at the Mattatuck Museum which says: "This exhibition presents Kent's slate prints, carved slates and wood sculptures." Also see "Bill Kent: A Carving Artist Remembered" by Alan Bisbort from William Kent Charitable Foundation. Accessed 10/18

With the Grain is a 2023 exhibit at the New Mexico Museum of Art which says: "With the Grain explores the dialogue between artists and their materials at play in the work of modern and contemporary Hispanic carvers in Northern New Mexico. Focusing on the intersection of materials, form, practice, and place it traces the relationship between wood carvers in Northern New Mexico and the distinctive way in which the aesthetics of their work was, and continues to be, informed by a relationship with their material and through a privileging of the natural qualities of the wood they worked with. This practice often allows the natural forms of unfinished pieces of wood to guide the composition of their piece, thus fostering a dialogue between artist and material that informed the finished product." Accessed 8/24

Kentucky Educational Television offers a series of 1/2 hour videos from Mixed, a weekly arts series starting from 2003. See Program 614: Sculptor Zoé Strecker, Lexington wood sculptor Philip Hultgren, and the music of Louisville's Ochion Jewell Quartet

(above: Patrociño Barela & son with several sculptures, New Mexico, c. 1936, unidentified photographer. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)

(above: Patrociño Barela at work on a wood carving in his studio, New Mexico, c. 1936, unidentified photographer. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)

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