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All the artists have stories behind them, so does Richard X Zawitz, one of the worldfamous sculptors in the current American Art industry. 70-year-old Zawitz was born and raised in Pittsburgh in 40s and 50s. Though it was the time the legend artist Andy revealing outstanding talent, the trend of art creation was not popular at that time, not to mention to choose being an artist as the career. For that matter, young Richard was impressed with doing art creation. He recalled and said with a smile that it was happened long time ago, even as far as I could think of. At that time, he was just a ten-year-old boy. All he thought at that moment was simply how to enjoy his life. In 1967, Richard was 21, but it was the important year in his life. He said that in 1967, America entered into the so-called Hippie Generation. The young generation started to rethink the limitation in the past and tried to break through the stereotypes and get rid of the traditional creeds. The things that were not encouraged to do it before, like art creation, were gradually accepted and identified in society. Being influenced on this new trend, at age of 21, Richard started to dig out the potential and the desire inside him, which was the art of sculpture. He went on and said that until now, the art creation not only has already taken most of his heart but is the greatest motivation that pushes him to move on because he believed that the art can make people and the world better. In his point of view, everyone shall access to art and this is as well as the goal he desired most to achieve in the arts.

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It is never easy to use the sculptures to embody the thinking of mysterious Tao philosophy. However, Richard said that the inspiration would always be with him wherever his mind went in the process of doing the art creation, took the creations of monkey series as an example. The organizer has discussed the plan with him two years ago. He likes monkey so much that he said yes to the organizer without hesitation even under the condition of no idea at all. Then, he laid down and closed eyes to brainstorm how to work with this exhibition. What came to his mind first was that why he liked monkey so much? He figured out that it was because we are evolved from the same ancestors as the monkey and decided the theme of civil revolution. After deciding the theme of the display, he further want to decide what he wanted to give the audiences through this exhibition? How could do to guide people to think about it through my sculptures? Little by little, he came out the title of this exhibition “Civilization and The Monkey. Why We Are Here! Why Are We Here?” Richard hoped that his sculptures not only inspire and stimulate us to feel and promote our creativity, but also want the audiences to think about the meaning of “why are we here?”. The exploration in the development of human culture to bring out more positive influence to this world.

25th Thriller Aniversary ITALIAN VOGUE

Italian Vogue Shoot

KING OF POP with a Zawitz Sculpture draped over him.

You could tell even so, with a fairy tale, the event that magically happened before my eyes: the photoshoot for L’Uomo Vogue: Michael Jackson (The King of Pop), with Bruce Weber (the wizard) and fashion editor Rushka Bergman (the princess).

We wanted an infinite sculpture for an infinate talent.

“The villagers, up to that moment waited with bated breath, burst into thunderous applause” - Webber.

culpture demands to be touched. This is something Richard Zawitz appreciates. From the directness of figuration to the aesthetics of abstraction to the complexities of infinity and Tao, Zawitz says his “understanding of sculpture is that it is to be experienced tactilely.”1

Since his earliest works in wood and marble, of more than 40 years ago, Zawitz has made art that enchants the eye and stirs the imagination and stimulates the intellect. It is, as he says, part of his role as an artist andinnovator “to enlighten and to delight.” And in the manner of a thaumaturgist— a performer of miracles, a magician of sorts—he sees himself as “changing lives through my sculpture.”

The singular artistic voice is a rarity: Zawitz has it. Compelled by a searching personality he has made elegant and lyrical sculptures that speak to a bold calligraphic sense of line and form and to a wide range of philosophical and spiritual questions, from humankind’ place within the universe to the personal nature of creativity. At the same time, Zawitz also deals with the quotidian realities of our environment, of nature’s extraordinary power and its fragility, and people’s influence on these, which lends many of his sculptures a natural force and adisconcerting intensity. One work in particular stands out for its intensity: Infinite Living Man (2014). The plants growing within the sculpture’sspiraling stainless steelframe lends the work an organic power that, at first glance, is a touch unsettling but then is quickly seen asentirely natural. In thiswork Zawitz brings together a Japanese technology that combines foam and dirt in which to grow plants: here, over slow time, the plans will become one with the stainless steel. The essential natural reality of Infinite Living Man extends the ‘human’ dynamic of Zawitz’s earlier wireframe Infinite Man (2012).

In the act of making Richard Zawitz travels between reality and the threads of his dreams to educate. For him “infinity is in all of us and in all things we perceive. Man and his symbols are my raison d’être for being creative, a sculptor, and as a performer with public exhibitions. I want to spread the gospel of man and his symbols and the power of creativity as far and as wide as I possibly can in this lifetime and beyond. Nature is our guiding force and pervading energy.

Humans are lost in a void. Why do humans pay vast sums to acquire and own art? [Because] there is power and energy to art. Creativity is infinite. I am on a relentless pursuit to manifest its spirit.” Whether he is dealing with smooth polished stainless steel or the colorful and grotesque forms of his new Alien

DNA series,Zawitz understands well that things change, that the creative process is uncertain.

He sees the uncertainty and transience of our journeys through Tao and Infinity, knowing that nature takes its own course and arrives on our doorsteps of its own volition, although, as Zawit says, we “must be open to energy and follow the flow.” Through his art Richard Zawitz has no problem arriving at the gates of our imaginations “to enlighten and to delight.”