Several Mission College faculty members were among the artists showing their work last Saturday at the International Sculpture Day Exhibit in San Jose’s Art Object Gallery. The show runs through April 28.
Mission College Vargas Gallery Director Lynne Todaro curated the show. “The celebration brings the art of sculpture into focus, and it celebrates three-dimensional art forms,” Todaro says. “Because sculpture is three-dimensional, you can’t experience it the same way by looking on the Internet or in a book. So it’s fun to get out and see it in real life.”
Todaro showed five pieces, including “Persephone,” a bronze art piece depicting a hand holding a shiny ruby colored pomegranate. It references the Greek myth of Persephone, who eats a few pomegranate seeds while being held captive in the underworld, and because of it was forever required to return to the underworld four months a year – which is winter.
Brian Tepper, an alumni of Mission College’s art classes, used to doodle organic shapes in his notebook while he was in school. The sculpture classes at Mission College allowed him to reimagine drawings from his childhood notebooks into 3D sculptures characterized by spirals, twists and curves.
“I have three sculptures here: they’re all wood sculptures showing non-objective abstract forms,” Tepper says. “There’s one I call ‘Twisted Wood #15′ and the second sculpture I have here is called ‘Spine.’ That one’s similar to the twisted wood one with a slightly different shape. The third one is a bit of a deviation. It’s called ‘Skull.'”
Cheryl Coon, Mission College faculty member, is inspired by science. As a result many of her sculpted abstractions suggest organisms seen under a microscope. Her untitled piece is five feet tall, made with forged steel and constructed with a hundred thousand zip ties. It looks like a fuzzy faceless pet with bristly fur.
“I like to go kayaking down in Baja California; I grew up by the beach so a lot of my work is inspired by the ocean,” Coon says. “I work abstractly so people can use their own imagination when looking at this piece.”
Another Mission College faculty member, Kristin Lindseth, is showing “Watched.” The piece is part of series of bronze sculpted human heads that will be on exhibit at the Peninsula Museum of Art in Burlingame from June 5 to August 14. “Watched” shows a tilted head with a sleeping and dreaming face.
“‘Watched’ is about the experience we have in our contemporary world,” Lindseth says. “It’s about being under surveillance for our conversations, our emails. It’s about how our online presence is being monitored and tapped into for purposes of sales and possibly more sinister purposes. The head is being watched but it is also watching. There are societies around the world that are less open, more watched, and human liberties are curtailed. So we have to be aware of what’s going on so it doesn’t become a worse problem.”
