John Clement Art Prize Sculpture at Castle 8-12-09 1


Image by stevendepolo
This is a traffic purple welded metal sculpture in front of the Castle on Cherry Street installed for the 2009 Art Prize competition.
www.artprize.org/artist/id/1568

John Clement has been creating sculpture for fourteen years. While he worked towards a MFA at the School of Visual Arts, he did not complete it preferring instead to apprentice to Mark Di Suevero which lead to his love of steel. From 1994 to the present, John’s curvilinear steel sculptures have appeared in exhibitions in California, New York, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Kanas, Connecticut , Canada, China and Japan. He has permanently installed sculptures in Vancouver, Staten Island, San Francisco, Houston, Macon Georgia, Des Moines, Delray Beach and Palm Springs. Additionally, John has participated in the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale in Canada, The Klenova Sculpture Symposium in Prague,The Czech Republic, the Ubu Sculpture Biennale in Japan, and the Zhengzhou International Sculpture Exhibition in China. Solo exhibitions of his works have been hosted by Buschlen Mowatt Fine Art, Tricia Collins Contemporary Art and Gallery Sonja Roesch.
Artist statement: My sculptures are three- dimensional realizations of imaginary forms. I rely heavily on the artistic process, allowing the work to evolve and mature, eventually become self- referential. Although many of my works are site -specific their form does not directly rely on the surrounding architecture or landscape. The clearly defined positive and negative space of the work, combined with its scale, creates a new framework in which the surroundings can be experienced through the sculpture.

Curvilinear forms of coiled and welded steel, tangential and intersecting, best characterize my work. I choose to work with steel and approach the material first as an artist and second as a craftsman. The success of my work does not rely upon gimmicks or trickery in the materials, but on the implied movement and strength of form of each individual piece. The bright, primary colors used to paint the work serves to bring the form of the work to the forefront, enhancing the sense of the work leaping fro