HAMILTON, NJ.- Grounds For Sculpture announces its Fall Winter 2016-17 season featuring major solo exhibitions by two distinguished American sculptors, Elyn Zimmerman and Ned Smyth. Both artists are pioneers of public art and long-time participants in the New York art world, exhibiting at some of the most prominent galleries and museums. Their works are represented in museum, private, and public collections throughout the United States and beyond.
Also opening in the new season are the works of sixteen emerging artists who were selected from hundreds of national and international submissions in the International Sculpture Center’s 22nd Annual Outstanding Student Achievement Awards in Contemporary Sculpture. Paul Henry Ramirez’s major installation RATTLE closes out the exhibition line-up. The artist’s multi-dimensional exploration and transformation of the gallery space employs painting, architecture, light and sound which together form an unforgettable viewer experience.
ELYN ZIMMERMAN: WIND, WATER, STONE
On view in the East Gallery August 27, 2016 – January 7, 2018
On view in the West Gallery, February 18, 2017 – January 7, 2018
In her stone sculptures, Zimmerman balances the sensuous materiality of magnificent slabs of quarried stone with other key elements such as water, light, and landscape. Zimmerman’s sculptures reference her attraction to archaic architectural form, a subject also captured in her lush black and white photographs on display in the East Gallery. These photographs, taken during her travels in places such as Peru, India, and Egypt, are joined by images of her many public sculptures, allowing the viewer to make the connection between her large scale public works and the form, light and composition seen in her black and white photography. Beginning in February 2017, the exhibition continues in the West Gallery which will further explore Zimmerman’s works on paper, juxtaposing works from the artist’s Elemental series, including topographical photographic collages, ink and wash drawings of moving water, and pastel drawings of clouds from her Heaven’s Breath series.
NED SMYTH: MOMENTS OF MATTER
On view October 23, 2016 – April 2, 2017
This exhibition will focus on New York-based artist Ned Smyth’s large-scale sculptural works that appear as large rock formations milled in dense foam, hard-coated in resin, and painted in a stone-colored palette. These eight sculptures will be accompanied by large format black and white photographs—some as large as 6’ x 8’—that explore the texture of stones Smyth has collected for 35 years. He approaches these photographs as portraits, considering the surfaces of these stones to be records of the earth’s ancient history. The exhibition will include installations of the small stones he collects, including some later cast in bronze. A rarely-seen series of pigment and concrete paintings will be on view as well.
PAUL HENRY RAMIREZ: RATTLE
On view through January 8, 2017
Paul Henry Ramirez: RATTLE is a commissioned site-specific installation. With its bold, bright, playful use of color, RATTLE is as much a celebration of life as a study in precision and meticulous detail. It includes music created for the exhibition through collaboration between the artist and So Takahashi, and disrupts traditional boundaries between sculpture, painting, and architecture by creating an immersive sculpted environment. Entering the gallery, guests become part of a multi-dimensional sensory experience which surrounds them.
INTERNATIONAL SCULPTURE CENTER’S 22ND ANNUAL OUTSTANDING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS IN CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE
On view October 23, 2016 – April 2, 2017
This annual exhibition offers a glimpse into the future of contemporary sculpture as some of the most talented sculpture students, selected from hundreds of domestic and international art programs, exhibit their award-winning work in the 22nd International Sculpture Center and Grounds For Sculpture collaborative exhibition. The Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award is sponsored in part by Gertrud and Heinz Aeschlimann, Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, Johnson Art & Education Foundation, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation.
