DENVER, CO.- Goodwin Fine Art is presentng the second solo exhibition by sculptor and site-specific installation artist Patrick Marold. The exhibition features a new body of work by the artist that includes large-scale drawings using charred sculptural elements as the tool or drawing implement to create them. Photograms taken direct from an existent glass sculpture, Lens are also included in this ground breaking exhibit where Marold has upended his conceptual process with the resulting former physical object or sculpture now the progenitor of the two-dimensional objects in the current show.
The installation is comprised of the actual sculptural elements used to create the drawings, such as; Charred Core, a thirty-six inch diameter maple orb; Mantel a six-foot weathered and bleached log along with another five-foot charred log all placed and arranged in relationship to the drawings. The presence of the sculptural objects allows for one to contemplate the sheer physicality it took to create the drawings that in essence convey a contradictory ephemeral quality. The charcoal lends a richness and depth to the mark-making with impressions that either skip along the surface or convey more precise scorched-like shapes. Or as in the case of the drawing Walking Plume, (image to the left), one can imagine the swaying of the charred orb above the paper, slowly and repeatedly released to come into contact with the paper while leaving in its path its graceful mark. Their confounding ephemeral-ness also speaks to the title of the show, residuum or residue, that which is left behind. The viewer that encounters the work also left with a host of references to contemplate and stretching perhaps to the human condition.
Throughout Marold’s career photography has been an important component in his practice as a means to record and document references for future work. Also inherent in his working process has been an ongoing fascination and exploration into light and shadow. The photogram a camera-less capture of an image is a natural evolution in the artist’s practice where light is the source that creates the image. A total of seven photograms are part of the exhibition. All are direct images taken from the glass sculpture, Lens, formerly titled, Intersecting Spheres. It was through the act of creating the photograms that the artist began to see the sculpture in a different light or as the artist described, “the sculpture became more of a lens, physically and metaphorically.” The physically imposing Lens, made up of glass sheets stacked one upon the other is also part of the installation.
Patrick Marold earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1997. In 1998 the artist apprenticed under site-specific, environmental sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. He has been the recipient of various grants and awards including a 2001 Fulbright Fellowship in Iceland where he began to more fully direct his energies to creating works that utilized spatial dynamics to generate an enhanced perception of light and movement.
Marold’s engagement in the public art sector continues to flourish both in Colorado and beyond. The recently completed public art commission at DIA, Shadow Array, can be viewed from the train as it approaches the entrance to the airport’s new South Terminal. This past year Marold also completed and installed the outdoor sculpture titled, Confluent Stone for the city of Seattle in Maple Leaf Park. The installation of Solar Drones, a sonic sculpture, at the National Music Centre in Calgary will commence mid-June.
Other public art commissions can be seen around the city of Denver, from the 2010 Avian Front, located at the Denver Zoo, to the 2011 installation of, Virga, installed on a reclaimed foot bridge that crosses the Cherry Creek at the end of Delgany street in lower downtown Denver.
Marold maintains a studio practice in Denver, and continues working toward a means of spatial intercession, inviting the viewer to consider new orientations of landscape, materials, physical forces, and their impact on personal and communal perception.
