Installation of Untitled by Nils Folke Anderson

The Dikeou Collection is pleased to announce the installation of Untitled (Bannock & California), a sculpture by Nils Folke Anderson

Opening at 1331 Bannock St on Friday, September 30th, 2011

6-8pm.

Additionally, Nils Folke Anderson will present an artist's talk on Saturday, September 24th, 2011, 5-7pm at the Dikeou Collection, 1615 California St, Suite 515, off 16th St Mall.

Anderson's work emerges from a tradition of Minimalism, combining the forms of demigods like Serra, Judd, and LeWitt with the movements and kineticism of Trisha Brown. Constructed from a series of large interlocking square frames made of the unlikely material of expanded polystyrene, the 631?2 lb “giant” creates the illusion of formality while literally playing with the very virtues it seems to extol.

During the opening, Anderson will re-arrange the piece through the space to display the work as a “continuous sculpture” being shifted to defined and redefined 3-dimensional positions, moving in and of itself to demonstrate a principle of interrelation dubbed “reciprocal linkage” by the artist. In reciprocal linkage all of the frames are functionally equivalent in size, shape, material, color; but the work as a whole is infinitely adaptable via human movement. This movement, as in dance, is open ended, almost as if the piece—like an audio recording—is put on “pause” then once again set in motion. The shifting in turn deteriorates the massive monument as it is repositioned, creating site-specific detritus of polystyrene that become breadcrumbs in a forest of Minimalist forms.

Interestingly, in sourcing the material for the sculpture we discovered that Denver is a major hub for polystyrene production—tying this piece in with the manufacturing sector of our city.

The work of Nils Folke Anderson has been exhibited at the Robert Miller Gallery, Phillips de Pury, the Whitney Art Party, and Robert Wilson?s Watermill Foundation, among other venues, and he will be completing a permanent public sculpture in Ilford, UK to coincide with the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games. In the context of the nearby Denver Art Museum, Anderson has previously collaborated with Studio Daniel Libeskind on a proposal for the Malmö Concert Hall in Malmö, Sweden.

The Dikeou Collection is a private collection of contemporary art, located at 1615 California St on the 5th floor. It is open to the public Wednesday-Friday 11-5 and by appointment.

Artists in the Collection include: Vik Muniz, Rainer Ganahl, Simon Periton, Juan Gomez, Sarah Staton, Serge Onnen, Dan Asher, Momoyo Torimitsu, Lee Stoetzel, Jonathan Horowitz, Misaki Kawai, Ester Partegas, Chris Gilmour, Paul Ramirez Jonas, The Royal Art Lodge, Drue Langlois, Janine Gordon, Wade Guyton, Chris Johanson, Lawrence Seward, Lisa Kereszi, Agathe Snow, Johannes Van der Beek, Devon Dikeou, Margaret Lee, Luis Macias, Tracy Nakayama, Giasco Bertoli, Joshua Smith, Lizzie Bougatsos, Lucky DeBellevue, Anya Keilar, and Nils Folke Anderson.

Mark Oxman - Sculptor, The Decimation of Professor Richard Fink, Kirby Theatre, Amherst College

Saturday, September 18th, 2010 at 5pm

The Decimation of Professor Richard Fink will provide a bridge between traditional sculpture and some of the ideas surrounding postmodernism. While taking as its starting point a series of conventional sculpture heads, the Decimation of Professor Richard Fink transforms those static pieces into an interactive performance work. 

The work will begin as a series of 20 life-size portrait heads modeled from life and cast in plaster. These will be unique works, mot multiple copies or editions. The majority of those 20 portraits will be ceremoniously smashed in a ritual of decimation. Only two will be saved. The entire process from selecting the survivors through the ritual of decimation will be captured on video. 

Unlike conventional sculpture, which yields only a concrete work, and unlike conventional performance art, which is transitory, the Decimation of Professor Richard Fink will comprise both performance and enduring sculpture. While the resulting portrait heads will stand on their own as works of art, they will also be the outcome of an interactive performance work that is central to their creation and survival. 

Much of the contemporary art is involved with the "idea." Objects per se are often given less importance than in the past. However, by giving paramount importance to the concept, much contemporary work lacks traditional esthetic qualities. The Decimation of Professor Richard Fink highlights the conceptual elements of art, while nevertheless yielding concrete works. 

Mark Oxman
Director of the Sculpture Program Emeritus
American University
Washington, DC

Link  Kirby Theatre, Amherst College, The Decimation of Professor Richard Fink

Sculptor - Ron Meunck

Mask II, Ron Meunck

...(Ron) Meunck's sculptures faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images. His five metre high sculpture Boy 1999 was a feature in the Millennium Dome and later exhibited in the Venice Biennale.

In 1999 Mueck was appointed as Associate Artist at the National Gallery, London. During this two year post he created the works Mother and Child, Pregnant Woman, Man in a Boat and Swaddled Baby. - Wikipedia

Link Ron Meunck, Wikipedia

Link Working Process

The Threadneedle Prize for Painting and Sculpture

Self Portrait by Sheila Wallis, Threadneedle Prize Winner, 2009

(UK.) Artists are invited to submit representational and figurative work that retains a strong reference to the real world...Work must be based on observation, rather than concept or abstraction. All themes are admissible; traditional as well as innovative interpretations are both welcome...

Two major prizes are available: The Threadneedle Prize (£25,000) and the new Federation of British Artists Emerging Artist Prize (£5,000). Each of the six runners-up for The Threadneedle Prize receive £1,000.

The competition is open to all artists - established and emerging talent - aged 18 and over, living or working in the UK. Approximately 60 works, selected from a national open submission, will be exhibited at the Mall Galleries, London in September 2009.

To view 2009 submissions and prize winners, click on the link below.

Link The Threadneedle Prize for Painting and Sculpture

Anne Truitt, Sculptor and Writer

Anne Truitt, 17th Summer, Acrylic/Wood, 1974

"The retrospective...presents Truitt's column sculptures that became the hallmark of her profoundly focused practice. Acting as a painter as well as a sculptor, the artist wrapped color around the corners of these sculptures, creating visually poetic relationships between structure and surface. Throughout her work, she investigated proportion, scale and color, as well as perception and memory." Source: Hirshhorn Museum Website

Link Anne Truitt Exhibition, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC

Link Anne Truitt Official Website

Link The Washington Post, Article by Blake Gopnik, 10/11/09

Andy Goldsworthy - Sculptor

"At its most successful, my 'touch' looks into the heart of nature; most days I don't even get close. These things are all part of a transient process that I cannot understand unless my touch is also transient; only in this way can the cycle remain unbroken and the process be complete." - Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy (born 26 July 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist living in Scotland who produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. His art involves the use of natural and found objects, to create both temporary and permanent sculptures which draw out the character of their environment. - Wikipedia

Link Wikipedia

Link Website