ST. LOUIS, MO.- Bruno David is presenting a special exhibition M-velope by Michael Jantzen. Michael Jantzen is an internationally known artist whose work has been featured in hundreds of articles, books, magazines, and newspapers from around the world. His work attempts to merge art, architecture, technology, and sustainable design. He has not been educated as an architect but rather as an artist, using architecture as an art form. By incorporating his surroundings, he assimilates his pieces simultaneously to fit within the environment and likewise the environment to accommodate his pieces. Much of his work, in one way or another, explores new ways of thinking about the built environment. The gallery is showing his latest sculpture from his “M-velope” Series. The sculpture is 12 feet high by 12 feet wide and 20 feet long, it has been placed at the center of the main gallery space.

Artist Statement
These structures are part of an on going series that explores and celebrates the boundaries between architecture, sculpture, and furniture. The ultimate goal is to create new kinds of interactive spaces that encourage those who encounter them to think differently about the built environment and how it can have a positive uplifting effect on their own lives.

Most of these complex structures were created through a process of conceptually subdividing the outer surface of much simpler forms into various pieces. The pieces are then subdivided again and hinged back together. The hinged pieces are attached back to the original form along one edge (much like a door or window) and lifted up off of the original form in order to create a totally different and unexpected complex shape.

In some cases, these hinged pieces can be moved into different positions over the surface of the original form in order to create a transformable structure with many different potential shapes.

Other structures in this series were created by connecting hinged panels together side by side (independent of an original support shape) in a way that makes them appear to be unstable. The hinged panels are actually very stable because they are connected together in a truss-like fashion so that the hinges cannot actually move.

In every case, these structures were created in a way that promotes unpredictability through a system spontaneous construction.