“That was probably one of the best art criticisms I could ever have,” says Gallucci. “That Everyman could walk up, immediately be engaged by what I was doing, and then be captured by the art of it.” He takes another slow drink of water. “Everyone can understand a gate. Once they understand the gate, they can begin to discover what the art is all about.” Children can, too. Gallucci’s “whisper” gates (and benches), inspired by his daughter Madeline, feature the simple use of sound tubes to encourage interaction — with the art and with others. One such gate is at the Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh.
* Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Gallucci picked up an English degree — and met his wife, Kathy — at Le Moyne College. Somewhere in the midst of things he got the itch to learn to sculpt with iron. “So I decided to teach myself one summer,” Gallucci says. When Gallucci’s father saw him hammering hopelessly at a scrap of iron out by the garage — attempting to make a chisel by using an old forge — what he said surprised his son: “You’re doing it all wrong.” Like second nature, Gallucci’s old man showed him how it’s done. “Is this what you’re trying to do?” he asked, striking the hot iron once or twice. Sure enough. “When you’re nine years old in Italy, they start you in a trade,” Gallucci explains. “By the time my father immigrated to the States, when he was thirteen, he was a journeyman blacksmith. He taught me everything he knew.”
* Gallucci went on to receive his MFA in sculpture from Syracuse University in 1976. A year or so later, he accepted a teaching position as an art instructor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After teaching for nine years, he took a year off to focus on his art. “I worked in the studio that year instead,” he says. Good thing, too. That year, Gallucci created artwork that was selected to go to the World Expo 88 in Brisbane, Australia. Then, Brisbane City Council bought his work. “All of a sudden, I went from a guy that left teaching to an international artist.” He never did go back to school. Then again, he never really stopped teaching.
* In 2005, Gallucci designed and built his 7,200-square-foot studio on Industrial Avenue where he and a staff of six assistants — whom Gallucci trains — design and fabricate sculpture full time. His sculptures have graced many notable venues, including the Navy Pier — the site of the world’s largest outdoor sculpture show held annually in Chicago, Illinois. They’re also woven throughout this town. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Find Millennium Gate on West Washington, or the pair of playful blue benches that grace the Cultural Arts building. At NewBridge Bank Park, the entry gate — his depiction of a massive metal baseball bat — spans 52 feet. But Gallucci and his crew do more than sculpt gates and benches. They also make handrails, bridges, and a host of site-specific monuments. The possibilities seem boundless. “We’re not just making gates all day long. That’s retail. We don’t do that,” the artist assures. “We do one-of-a-kind here. That’s what makes it special. And that is the future.” The future, as Gallucci sees it, is reminiscent of a 19th century industry — “a time when people went to the cobbler for custom-made shoes.” As he sees it, the American Dream is still achievable — ironclad, of course. “This is still a place that knows how to make stuff.”
* Behind the front desk in the studio, a corkboard offers method to the metal madness. “This is how we keep track of which sculpture is where,” Gallucci says, “just like an airport tracks its carriers.” Twenty or so are in transit. A piece in Greer, South Carolina, for instance, is due to be moved. Destination: Jackson, Missouri. Wind Passage is tacked beneath Greensburg, Kansas. “We’ve become big supporters of Greensburg,” he says of the tiny town entirely wiped out by an EF5 tornado back in 2007. “It was wind that destroyed the city, and it is wind that has rebuilt it,” the artist says of the town’s new green initiative, which includes the use of windmills to power the city. Plus, he adds, constructing an arts center was one of the primary undertakings of the citizens of Greensburg at a time of unthinkable tragedy and bleakness. “That just shows how focused they are on rebuilding their community,” he says. “The arts can save us. Art brings business, shows vitality, and sometimes above all, it offers hope in times of despair.” Behind Gallucci’s studio sits a reminder of a time America most needed hope: a pile of steel beams from the World Trade Center. A year after the 9/11 attack, Gallucci’s Gates of Sorrow, phase one of a project designed using the steel from the twin towers, was unveiled in New York City in honor of the souls lost on September 11, 2001 — a day that, subsequently, unified the nation. The construction of the second phase of the project, the 53 foot Gates of Hope, as Gallucci alternatively calls them, awaits funding
* Soon, Gallucci hopes to expand his realm. He envisions a local renaissance in earth materials. A stone carver to collaborate with him on future projects. A woodshop. Printmaking and photography studios. Who knows, maybe even glass blowers. “I want to see Greensboro become the Florence of the South,” he says. In the meantime, long live the Gate City. OH August/September 2011
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