The Art of Turning: Masters in Wood March 12 - April 25, 1998

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1 ADVANCE EXHIBITION INFORMATION FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Art of Turning: Masters in Wood March 12 - April 25, 1998 Barry Friedman Ltd. is pleased to present The Art of Turning: Masters in Wood, a group exhibition by five top contemporary artists working in the medium of wood: Michelle Holzapfel, Robyn Horn, Todd Hoyer, Ron Kent and Mike Shuler. The exhibition will be on view from March 12 through April 25, The Art of Turning explores the maturation and divergent aesthetics of a field that has historically celebrated the precision and fine craftsmanship of the lathe-turned object. In recent years, studio artists have taken their work further into the field of sculpture with conceptual concerns and physical alterations achieved through handcarving, gouging, burning, weathering and the integration of additional elements such as metal, stone and fiber. The five artists represented in this exhibition often begin their work on the lathe to establish a basic form. In this way, the lathe is the common tool that links their art. After the initial shaping, each artist goes on to explore and develop his or her own individual creative voice. Using hardwoods collected from the area around her Marlboro, Vermont home, Michelle Holzapfel transforms birch burls and other irregular woods into beautiful objects inspired by everyday life. In a feature article in American Craft Magazine, Deborah Krasner wrote, Michelle Holzapfel s ability to combine elements narratives (hers and ours), allusions to mythical and historical events results in objects that are richly layered in associations. Her skill in carving compelling surfaces that are inseparable from form and her quiet assertion of the values of 20 th -century womanhood further extend the impact of her artful and splendid work. A native of Arkansas, Robyn Horn was formally trained in painting and sculpture. She creates sculptures in wood which emphasize volume, form, texture and negative space. An admirer of the stone sculpture of Isamu Noguchi and Barbara Hepworth, Horn explains, I think in terms of wood and stone, of the things of which nature is made, of the ease with which nature develops into shapes and forms. The process of wood materializing into stone shapes is the basis of what I am trying to accomplish creatively. Todd Hoyer alters woodturned objects through burning, cutting and weathering in his Bisbee, Arizona studio. His narrative and content-based pieces are inspired by emotional and real life issues. Curator and critic John Perreault has described Mr. Hoyer as the autobiographical turner. The works all have personal and often very symbolic meanings. Perreault continues, Hoyer remains in the forefront of turned wood as sculpture, retaining the raw ambiguity that this displacement attempt generates as the vessel is both venerated and destroyed.

2 Mike Shuler of Santa Cruz, California has been turning objects since he received his first lathe at the young age of 14. His unique and elegant vessels are made of hundreds and often thousands of segmented pieces of mostly contrasting exotic hardwoods used to create complex and intense patterning radiating from the base upward. Ron Kent is best known as a turner of remarkably thin translucent bowls made from Norfolk Island Pine, a wood indigenous to his island home of Honolulu, Hawaii. The varied spalting in the wood creates dramatic gradations in color, tone and opacity and when properly lit, the bowls appear to glow from within. Kent explains, My primary challenge is to expose the intrinsic natural beauty of the wood in each log. I enjoy working at the far edge of my ability, for I am constantly trying to create pieces that are a little thinner, a little larger, and a little finer than I have even made before. All of the above artists are featured in the American Craft Museum s concurrent exhibition, Expressions in Wood: The Wornick Collection. (January 27 through March 22, 1998), a major travelling exhibition which originated at the Oakland Museum of California in The exhibit was curated by Kenneth R. Trapp, currently Curator-in- Charge of the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, formerly Curator of Decorative Arts at the Oakland Museum and, Tran Turner, formerly Acting Associate Curator of Crafts and Decorative Arts at the Oakland Museum. For visuals and additional information, please contact: Carole Hochman or Dara Metz 212/

3 [SEPARATE INSERT FOR ART OF TURNING EXHIBIT] Barry Friedman Ltd. is moving forward into the field of Contemporary Decorative Arts with exhibitions featuring, studio glass, ceramics, wood objects and studio furniture. We will continue to exhibit 20th Century European Decorative Arts including Bauhaus, Wiener Werstätte and French Art Deco; avant-garde paintings and photography from the 1920s and 1930s; works on paper; sculpture, and contemporary photography. To accommodate our expansion, we are annexing the third floor of the adjacent townhouse, increasing our exhibition space to 4,000 square feet. With this addition, we will be able to present concurrent exhibitions featuring work from different periods and in different media.

4 [COVER] The Art of Turning: Masters in Wood March 12 - April 25, 1998 Michelle Holzapfel, Robyn Horn, Todd Hoyer, Ron Kent, Mike Shuler [INSIDE TEXT] The Art of Turning explores the maturation and divergent aesthetics of a field that has historically celebrated the precision and fine craftsmanship of the lathe-turned object. More recently, a new and exciting shift has developed focusing on the significance of form and content. Sculptural and conceptual concerns are now realized through a wide range of physical alterations, creative manipulations and the integration of metal, stone and fiber accents. The five artists represented in this exhibition reveal the depth, vitality and energy associated with tendencies in the field of studio wood today.

5 [CAPTIONS FOR PIECES] Michelle Holzapfel Gemma Vase, 1998 Turned, carved and burned split-leaf maple burl 10 h x 13 diameter Robyn Horn Pan, 1998 Carved and burned madrone 29 h x 15 w x 7 ½ d Todd Hoyer Suspended Sphere Series, Turned, weathered and burned cottonwood and wire 12 h x 12 diameter Ron Kent Post-Nuclear Bowl #10, 1997 Turned, cut and burned Norfolk island pine, laced copper wire 10 h x 12 ½ diameter Mike Shuler Segmented Bowl, 1998 Laminated and turned birdseye maple 5 ¾ h x 12 diameter [BACK COVER] Barry Friedman Ltd. 32 East 67 th Street New York, New York Tel: Fax: BFLTDGAL@aol.com Gallery Hours: Monday Friday, 10-6, Saturday, 10-5

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