Silvermine
Rob Loebell
Mirrorless Reflections April 21 - May 19, 2018
Mirrorless Reflections 2018 Photographs are flat representations of the three-dimensional world. They freeze a moment in time, and capture a specific place, activity, person or group. In these relief carvings, I return black and white photographs to three dimensions. These sculptures reference home and travel and the frozen moments I’ve captured moving through environments not my own. In a two step process, I begin by taking hundreds of pictures and then curating them into a story in images. These images are then returned to three dimensions in carved collages. The pieces are carved, burned and painted to suggest their sources- black and white photographs- but they are not reproductions. Through this transformation, the photographs become more abstract, and hopefully, thereby, more universal. They are softer edged, more like memories than decipherable events. The sculptures reimagine the fixity or flexibility of time by swapping the original medium for wood, and then recreating the images themselves into a new form. Rob Loebell
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Vegas Wenge, burned and painted, 15” x 22” x 2”
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Timeline Yellowheart, burned and painted, 36” x 30” x 1”
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Cruise (detail) Maple, burned and painted, 5’ x 2’ x 2”
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Safari (detail) Mahogany, burned and painted, 13” x 72” x 1”
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2 Photos Aging (detail) Pear, burned and painted, 10” x 60” x 3”
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Turkey (detail) Oak, burned and painted, 12” x 60” x 2”
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Venus Cherry, burned and painted, 8” x 10” x 2”
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China (detail) Yellowheart, burned and painted, 36” x 12” x 1”
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China Line (detail) Yellowheart, burned and painted, 72” x 12” x 1”
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Elephant Watering Hole (detail) Mahogany, burned and painted, 13” x 47” x 2”
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Diefenbunker Entrance (detail) Maple, burned and painted, 9” x 45” x 1”
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Silvermine has been a place for artists to gather since 1906 when visionary sculptor Solon Borglum moved to Silvermine and held annual exhibitions in his studio and weekly artist-critiques called the Knockers Club. In 1922 The Silvermine Guild of Artists was incorporated as a not-for-profit to provide a permanency to the community of artists. Guild members represent artists that have a high level of artistic accomplishment and are selected through a jurying process. Today the Guild membership stands at about 300. Silvermine Galleries has a 95 year reputation of exhibiting and involving art luminaries such as Joseph Albers, Gabor Peterdi, Milton Avery, Elaine deKooning, Clement Greenberg, Louise Nevelson, Larry Rivers, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, James Rosenquist, Chuck Close, Philip Johnson … and the list goes on. Silvermine today is recognizing our heritage by expanding the borders of our contemporary exhibitions to include recognized emerging artists from across the USA to exhibit at Silvermine. These exhibitions highlight contemporary art trends and broaden the community’s understanding and appreciation of art by bringing some of the most influential pundits in contemporary art to Fairfield County. Silvermine Galleries continually strives to rethink what a not-for-profit gallery can do and where it belongs in the larger context of the contemporary art world. Through the curation of outside exhibitions, creative partnerships and programming, and thoughtful guest curation, the galleries work to enrich the history of Silvermine by drawing from its past roots, all the while looking to Silvermine’s future. Silvermine has five galleries and a sculpture walk as a backdrop for an ambitious calendar of over 20 exhibitions annually, drawing roughly 10,000 visitors. Silvermine is grateful to its donors of art who have made possible an extensive permanent collection of fine prints, ever-changing outdoor contemporary sculptures for public appreciation and acquistion, all located throughout our campus. The Gabor Peterdi International Print Collection, begun in 1956, includes master works from Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Peterdi, and Calder, along with many other influential printmaking luminaries from the 20th century, and is exhibited on a rotating basis.
For information on becoming a guild member - www.silvermineart.org/guild/member
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Silvermine Silvermine Arts Center
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1037 Silvermine Road New Canaan, CT 06840 www.silvermineart.org