Participants for the ISC Cast Iron Sculpture Workshop hail from all corners of the globe, you can visit and chat to them about their work during the ISC Symposium as they make molds and cast Iron at FIU in Miami from 29th – 4th Dec 2013. The selected artists reflect a diversity in techniques and approaches to sculpture through mold making and iron casting, ranging from performative and digital to traditional and ancient. The concept of the workshop is to examine the current pulse regarding contemporary practices and the potential use of cast iron as a vehicle of expression. Iron has a long rich history with our earth and its industrial heritage ; it is at the same time domestic, elemental, commonplace and cosmic.
Toomas Altnurme | Estonia
‘Ad Astra’ Granite
A member of the Estonian Sculptors Union, Toomas has participated in over 40 sculpture symposiums around the world, his work can be found in public spaces and parks such as Sumter South Carolina, USA, Brazil Brusque, Chille Carretas Park, Russia Penza, Taiwan Shimen, Denmark Hojer, England Exmoor Park, France Hautecour, Italy Temu, Germany Bavaria, Finland Pello, Latvia Bikeser and Lithuania Panevezys. He plays an active role in the Estonian Sculptors Union Seoul A-Link Artist Group, The South Korea International Association for Monumental Sculpture Events and Artists in Nature International Network.
He studied at Tallinn Pedagogical University, Estonia and Rajamangala University of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. In 1999–2001 he received a Korean Government Scholarship where he completed his MFA at Hongik University, South-Korea, Seoul.
http://art-altnurme.weebly.com/
Eric England | Ohio, USA
Talisman Series’ Hand-carved wood & tempera
Once upon a time, in a small, insignificant province, there was a skinny, little towhead who loved his mom, his robots and his comic books. It was through the exploits of Spiderman that the lad increased his vocabulary and taught himself how to draw. Crude perhaps, but the spark had been ignited. Through Spiderman, and later the X-Men and others, his love of anatomy grew also. Eventually this led to the boy heading off to the big, windy city, Chicago, where he earned his first master’s degree in medical art.
He was a teacher for a long while, but the need to create his own work was ever-increasing, gnawing at his discontented spirit. Eventually the siren call won out, and he earned his second master’s degree in the fine arts, where he was free to and engaged in bringing his own visions to fruition.
www.reapinlizardz.com/ericportfolio
Roberto Giordani | Italy
At his Workshop in Romagna’s Hills, Italy
Son of an artisan blacksmith, Roberto had the chance to learn the first rudiments and the basic techniques of metal forging from an early age, demonstrating an original and outstanding ingenuity, and ability in artistic design. In the early 80’s he gained experience working in several Italian ironworks creating large scale steel constructions.
He is educated in the techniques of restoration and construction of metal elements in historic buildings from the Bufalini School, in Città di Castello, and also studied drawing and sculpture at the School of Fine Arts, in Florence.
His works are exhibited Internationally and can be seen embellishing public spaces in the Czech Republic, United States, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Morocco and in many Italian cities.
http://www.robertogiordani.com/
Cynthia Handel | California, USA
Pyro Print’ Iron, Fire and Paper
Cynthia Handel’s work has investigated sculpture and performance over the past 16 years. Her work combines fabricated steel, cast bronze and iron elements with silk, steel, wood, beeswax and fire. She has presented her work Internationally at the College Art Association, International Sculpture Conferences and at The International Conference for Cast Iron Art. She has participated as an artist in residence at the USUK Iron Symposium, Berllanderi Sculpture Workshop in Wales, Franconia Sculpture Park, Wyoming and Montana where she has set up her new studio. Her recent experiments use the iron casting process to create gestural works. Iron is poured as the artist creates movement and action the iron dances across the silk resulting in a ‘pyro print’. ‘Poetic and graceful, the process is intuitive and intimate. These experimental investigations are fluid like a dance of the body and an extension of my hands.’ She is a member of the sculptors group ‘Iron Maidens’.
http://www.cynthiahandel.com
Michael Horswill | Idaho, USA
‘Trilogy’ Steel, acrylic, aluminum, powdercoat + granite.
Michael Horswill’s sculptures are abstract visual environments that juxtapose natural materials such as wood, rawhide, beeswax, and bamboo with mechanical materials such as steel, copper, wire and glass. Horswill’s influences include a fascination with mechanical systems combined with immersion in nature, including bee-keeping and watching the occasional moose while welding. He grew up in the Northwest and attended art schools and universities in Montana, Japan, Washington, and Idaho, studying studio art, architecture, Native-American artifacts, African and Oceanic art, and Asian Wabe-Sabe philosophy, culminating in an MFA. His work as an illustrator, then painter, and now sculptor is balanced by teaching design, sculpture, and art history at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene. Horswill is a life-long student of art, continually exploring and uniting processes and materials in intricate smaller sculptures for gallery and academic exhibitions and larger public artworks in the Inland Northwest region.
http://www.theartspiritgallery.com
Okay Ikenegbu | Nigeria
‘Retreat’ and ‘Puberty’ Cast Aluminum and Soapstone
Okay Ikenegbu is chief lecturer at the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu. He holds a PhD in Art History lending a voice to Igbo Metal Technological Development. Starting in 1986, he carried out research on “The Traditional Sources of Achi Metal Smithing” for his B.A Degree followed by a major study of “The Awka Metal Works (Tradition and Change)” for his Masters. Currently, challenged by the need for much work to be done for a clear chronological charting of metal technology in Igbo land; He is now at the verge of completing a dissertation on “Contemporary Igbo Metal Works: A Study of Aluminum Cast Wares of Enugu Smiths, 1970 – 2010”.
Alongside his writings, his studio work does not merely center in the experience of the final piece: there is a relationship between what is experienced physically or visually and the spirit of the moment.
http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=7635
Justine Johnson | Wales + London, UK/USA
Elements from “She walks The Spiral Path” a 8mm B/W-Colour and HD film Based on the book “Irons in The Fire” by Nor Hall. Cast Iron, Leather and Wool
Justine Johnson’s work is a poetic exploration of the mythology, history and contemporary practice of iron in art today. She engages the process and histories of making by combining objects, with sound, film and performance.
Currently living and working out of London she is an American/British artist born in Orange California. She received a BA in Costume Design from San Francisco State University where she developed an interest in Japanese textiles that led her to study in Osaka Japan. She worked in Hong Kong from 1985-1992 as a designer/art director in the fashion industry as well as costume designing for the Hong Kong Ballet. In 1992 she relocated to London and Wales, where she enrolled in the sculpture program at West Wales School of Art receiving a BA (1Hons) in ‘98 and her MFA from Middlesex University London in 2003.
Justine has participated in many group and solo exhibitions as well as in National and International Cast Iron Art Conferences, including the USUK Cast Iron Sculpture Symposium at Salem Art Works NY/ Suffolk UK. She is a member of the sculptors group ‘Iron Maidens’.
www.justinejohnson.co.uk
Coral Penelope Lambert | UK/New York, USA
‘Cloud Burst’ Cast Iron, Steel + Flock
Internationally recognized for working in cast iron as well as producing large scale outdoor pieces. British born Lambert is currently Head of Sculpture at Alfred University, New York where she also directs the National Casting Center’s Foundry Program. She studied at Central School of Art in London, Canterbury College of Art, Kent and received her MFA in Sculpture from Manchester, UK in 1990. As an International Research Fellow in Cast Metals at the University of Minnesota from 1996 – 1999 she carried out research in ancient metal casting processes. In 2006 she Co-Chaired the International Conference on Cast Iron Art in Ironbridge, England taking the conference across the Atlantic for the first time.
Her work can be seen on Governers Island, New York this summer.
She will be directing the Cast Iron Sculpture Workshop during the ISC in Miami. She is an active member of the New York Sculptors Guild and ‘Iron Maidens’.
Marsha Pels | New York, USA
‘To Breathe, To Walk’ Painted cast bronze, iron, flame-worked Pyrex glass and found objects.
Marsha Pels is internationally known for sculpture which includes a range of labor-intensive cast and fabricated objects, multi-media installations and outdoor site-specific pieces. Her work explores the transformation of found objects in a variety of materials. Pels defines spaces within site-specific contexts in order to create poetically ans sometimes politically charged psychological landscapes.
She has won numerous awards including a 1981 Public Art Fund Grant, a Prix de Rome in 1984, a Fullbright Senior Scholar award to Germany in 1997, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in 2004, and most recently; a 2013 Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant.
She lives + works out of her studio in Brooklyn, NY.
http://www.marshapels.com
Laura Phelps Rogers | Colorado, USA
‘Iron Maidens’ from A Womans Work is Never Done’ Cast Iron, Silk and Cardboard.
Laura received her BFA from the University of Colorado Denver in Sculpture where she fostered numerous opportunities for collaboration. Laura’s skills and interests range from color theory to art history supplemented by a broad range of construction, foundry, wood and alternative process skills that position her to be receptive to creative opportunities of all kinds.
In addition to her traditional creative mediums she has ventured into new media and electronic art. A full time member of the cooperative gallery EDGE in Denver, Colorado, her recent solo show there: A Woman’s Work Is Never Done was featured in Westword. Laura’s work was recently featured at Core Gallery, Denver, Colorado in Time Capsule; McNichols Building in Denver, Colorado; 40West Arts Lakewood, Colorado in both Inspire and Traveling US 40; Emmanuel Gallery Denver, Colorado with Juror Michael Chavez; and the Arvada Center Gallery, Arvada, Colorado in The Art of the State. She is an Associate Member of Pirate Gallery in Denver, CO.
http://www.lauraphelpsrogers.com
Tamsie Ringler | Minneapolis, USA
‘Transmission (Palus Somnii)’ at the International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art, Kidwelly, Wales, UK.
Tamsie Ringler works within environmental and populist traditions of public art. Her installations and sculptures integrate process, space and viewer; as elements and witnesses. Using the process of iron casting she fuses public spectacle with the production of contemplative spaces and objects. Recent projects explore our relationship with land and the environmental effects of our over-use of natural resources. These explorations focus on connections between the materials of sculpture and industry and between our daily lives and petro-chemical landscapes. Her work can be seen at Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota, Touhy Park and Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park in Chicago and on the MAX Light Rail System in Portland, Oregon.
She is currently Head of Sculpture at St Catherine University in St Paul, MN and is Co-Chair of the International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art which will be held in Latvia in 2014 at the Pedvale Open-Air Art Museum. She will be assisting in leading up the Cast Iron Sculpture Workshop during the ISC in Miami. She is an active member of the ‘Iron Maidens’ sculptors group.
http://www.tamsie.com/
Susanne Roewer | Germany
‘Elementary Man’ Mixed Media Installation and Performance.
Susanne Roewer was finishing her undergraduate studies in material sciences at Freiberg University before starting her artistic career.
She graduated from Berlin Arts University in 1999 with a Meisterschueler-degree in Sculpture. For several years, she has run a studio in Berlin and the famous G7 Berlin network gallery (with 3 founder members) before relocating to Switzerland. In Basel she pursued investigations in different materials supported by several art programs and collectors. Her artwork has been shown in different national and international galleries, museums and art societies. She completed three art-within-architecture projects. Residencies and grants have taken her to Tasmania, San Francisco and most recently Scotland where she was a participant of the USUK Cast Iron Sculpture Symposium.
Susanne currently lives and works out of her studio in Berlin.
http://www.susanne-roewer.de
Workshop Assistants
SARA BRUCE, RONDA PHIPPS and KEVIN DARTT (Alfred Sculpture Graduate Students)
ROSEMARIE OAKMAN, BECCA FLIS and STEPHEN ROONEY (Alfred Sculpture Undergraduate Students)
Funding of the Workshop Assistants is supported by the Division of Sculpture Dimensional Studies, The National Casting Center Foundry at Alfred University. www.alfredmeltdown.blogspot.com
The Public Iron Pour and Performance will take place at Florida International University on Dec 3rd with Molds being made starting Nov 29th : the molds will be opened on Dec 4th. Please come by and meet the artists and see the new work made during the ISC.
For more information email Coral Penelope Lambert at lambertc@alfred.edu
International Sculpture Symposium in Miami 