 | Seattle is home to a remarkable group of sculptors, but many are more familiar for their large public works than their infrequent gallery shows. For Mark Calderon, whose bronze outdoor sculptures grace several buildings in the region, his current one-person exhibition at Greg Kucera is just his first in 6 years. Our art critic Gary Faigin joins us to discuss this show. On paper, Mark Calderon sounds a bit all over the place, citing as inspiration for his work everything from Mexican folk art, African sculpture, and images of the Buddha, to natural history (several of the pieces in the current show are portraits of extinct animals), Medieval Christianity, and the modern movement. “My influences are many”, he writes in his artist’s statement, and no one would dispute the point. The good news is that emerging out of this cultural potpourri are sculpted forms with an elegance, grace, and consistent sense of the monumental only indirectly dependent on the artist’s many sources, but directly dependent on the his disciplined and distinctive vision. |
