Sobre el Artista

In 1966 I was studying architecture at the University of Florida when I was drafted into the Army. While stationed in Europe, I created a permanent sculpture installation for my military base, in Kaiserslautern, Germany. After military service, I worked as an architectural draftsman and as an assistant to the sculptor, Anthony Cipriano. When I was discharged from active duty in 1968, while attending Chicago City College, I was commissioned by the Actor Murphy Dunne to create a sculpture for his personal collection. Later, that piece was featured in the Haskell Wexler film: “Medium Cool”, which was shot in Chicago around the time of the Democratic Convention. The following year I won a sculpture award at the Miami Pop Festival (1969). I am a graduate of The Cooper Union (Full Scholarship, BFA, 1973), where I studied with Ruben Kadish and Hans Haacke, amongst others, and Brooklyn College (MFA, 1977). I was on staff and faculty of both institutions after receiving my degrees. In 1977 I was a visiting lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design, in conjunction with a solo show of my prints and sculptures. I am presently an Adjunct Professor in the Art Department at New Jersey City University. One of my engravings is included in the Brooklyn College Art Department Print Portfolio, which is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Neuberger Museum at SUNY, Purchase. In 2004, I was commissioned by Pave The Way Foundation to create “The Ideals of Aaron.” The sculpture, a pair of crystal hands holding a globe, was to be presented to Pope John Paul II, in recognition of the Pope’s milestone accomplishments in furthering relations between the various world religions, Catholics and Jews in particular. During an audience in the Vatican in January 2005, with 150 rabbis, cantors and other invited guests from The Foundation in attendance, I was honored to personally present the sculpture to the Pontiff. In 2006 I completed a commissioned Torah Ark for Temple Beth Torah in Melville, NY; and my 1994 “Luncheon In The Sawgrass”, a monumental scale alligator created for and exhibited at Woodstock ’94 was installed in 2008-2009 in Elwood Park, Huntington, New York, and in 2009 in Annmarie Sculpture Garden in Solomons, MD. When the Taliban destroyed the monumental Buddhas in the Bamiyan Valley in Afganistan in 2001, I felt compelled to answer that insult to civilization. I made a series of symbolic replacement faces (which series continues to be revisited by me). I have used a myriad of materials, from silk cocoons (in reference to the Silk Road, on which Bamiyan was an important waypoint) to cast molten lava borrowed from the Hawaiian diety – Pele. In these works, the diverse materials used to create essentially the same image repeatedly, refers to the universality of the human condition, hopefully to suggest tolerance to those who may have previously neglected it. My work has also been included in exhibitions in the Anchorage Art Museum, AnnMarie Sculpture Garden (a Smithsonian affiliate), the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, the Islip Art Museum and the Nassau County Art Museum, as well as numerous other exhibitions around the country. I have received exhibition awards at the National Arts Club in NYC in 1977, the Huntington (NY) Arts Council in 2009, The Maryland Federation of Art in 2010, AnnMarie Sculpture Garden (MD) in 2010, the Huntington Arts Council in 2011, the Torpedo Art Factory and the Westmoreland Art Nationals in 2012. For the past four years I have exhibited with Collaborative Concepts at the Farm Project in Garrison, NY. I am also a member of 14 Sculptors Gallery. In 2013, I exhibited with the Museum of Pumpkin Art at van Cortland Manor. In 2013, I received a Puffin Foundation Grant to continue my environmental pieces: The ANTEDILUVIAN MEMORIES SERIES; specifically to add works relating to Hurricanes Irene and Sandy.