C.C.C.C. (cast concrete coffee cup)

AEG Turbine Factory, Berlin, 2008

Coffee is an everyday commodity presented in the iconic, mass produced disposable cup. It is a frail item folks commonly see littered throughout our society.

However, when I reconstruct it by casting it from concrete, the cup becomes a solid, three dimensional piece that references sculpture. It lends some similarity to a ready-made; however, it is not a mechanical reproduction. Craftsmanship has been inflicted upon it, and it is now an artisanal reproduction.

It is still mimetic, possessing a reference or a debt to imitation; but it is no longer mass produced but a boutique ready-made if you will. It is a contradiction by being unique individually, yet still being demoted as not unique among other coffee cups. It can be formally contained, displayed, and documented by installing it on a shelf in a room in San Francisco, or by taking a photograph of it in front of an historical building in Berlin.

Strathmere, New Jersey, 2016

New Windsor, New York, 2016

San Francisco, CA, 2007

Paris Toilet 2015 (thanks GS)

Versailles 2015 (thanks GS)

Word

Re: U.S.A., tempered duron, enamel 2015

Re Detroit, tempered duron, enamel, 2015

wood, paint, poetry,polystyrene, enamel, etc.

SOME, concrete

werd

Gone, 2015

GONE, polystyrene, enamel, 2015

GONE relies on the initial subtlety of the material’s repetitive construction, polystyrene. Through assemblage that continues a rough repetition of pattern with the addition of finishes applied, again referencing pattern, the final piece is arrived at. The piece is smooth in finish; however, coarse in representation of a fish.

Through the use of polystyrene, or Styrofoam, a trademarked Dow Chemical product, as the main building block of the fish, I am commenting on the relationship of chemicals to our environment in general, and the ocean in particular. I further explore humankind’s negative impact on the ocean buy using a camouflage used by military ships at the start of the 20th century. Currently, the U.S. Navy is under scrutiny for it’s use of sonar and it’s affect on aquatic life. To further extrapolate on the use of a camouflage, in this case a “disruptive coloration”, paint scheme, is to literally see nature disappearing.

ECONOMIC MALFEASANCE, plywood, collage, enamel, 2016

DOGS

GIDGET

gforza

gidget1

MIKA HAKKINEN

2010-08-16-jeffs-camera-189

STATEMENT

My sculptures enable me to interpret my perception of the influence of humanity on the environment, and disparities regarding wealth in society. I work with a variety of materials such as wood, aluminum, and steel; but mainly I use concrete.

Concrete can suggest architecture, nature, the figurative, and the abstract. Concrete displays a variety of characteristics in its various states. It is liquid, then solid. It is weak, then strong. It ebbs, it flows, it melds, it fluctuates, until it does not. The molds I create to contain the concrete, may be pliable or solid; but they always influence the concrete that inhabits them. I derive inspiration directly from the peculiar qualities inherent in each concrete pour. After the concrete has cured, and I have removed the mold, the liberated concrete portrays a porous rawness one might find in nature. I perceive this as a metaphor for the raw crudeness and gruff coarseness of the footprint humankind stomps on society. I strive to bridge asperity and form, and to encourage the resulting piece to retain a subliminal reference to design or architecture, but also to the human form, and nature.

Education:

B.A., University of California Santa Cruz

Post Baccalaureate Visual Arts, U.C. Berkeley Extension, honors

M.F.A., San Francisco Art Institute, outstanding student

https://voices.berkeley.edu/art-and-design/artists-path-amalgamation

Exhibits:

Right Here, Right Now, Richmond Art Center Biennial, Richmond, 2022
If A Tree Falls: Art of the Boundary Oak, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, 2021-2022
MFA Revisited, Root Division, San Francisco, 2021
Vernissage, SFAI, 2020
Recovecos III Fort Mason Center, 2019
Going Back to an Old Inquiry: Language and Art, Schafer Gallery, 2019
Mutually Assured, Schafer Gallery, San Francisco, 2019
Recovecos II, Fort Mason Center, 2019
Recovecos, Fort Mason Center, 2019
Root Division, MFA Now, artist talk and catalogue, 2019
Group Show, Alive in Strange Lands, Diego Rivera Gallery, 2018
Group Show, Reflections, Swell Gallery, SFAI, 2018
Group Show, Shadows, Swell Gallery, SFAI, 2018
Group Show, Frida’s Moustache,Diego Rivera Gallery SFAI, 2017
Group Show, Drawn to Line, UCBX Gallery, (San Francisco) 2016
Group Show, (3×3), UCBX Gallery, (San Francisco) 2015
Group Show, Dis/Order Juried Annual Pro Arts, (Oakland)2013
Group Show, Crowne Plaza Hotel,2012
Group Show, Signs of Our Times, Gallery 651, 2012
Group Show, Crowne Plaza Hotel (Concorde) 2011
Group Show, Gallery 651 (Martinez) 2011
Group Show, Richmond Art Center (Richmond) 2011
Group Show, The Budget Gallery (San Francisco) 2004
Group Show, Anti Gallery (San Francisco) 2003-2009
Miscellaneous non-compliant, cast concrete installations in California, New York, New Jersey, Houston, Portland, Seattle, D.C., Paris, and Berlin + 2001- present