The Sculpture Gallery

Lawrence Beck; a.k.a "Larry" Beck was a Seattle born sculptor who pursued a style of assemblage abstract in artistic sculpture. Beck was one fourth Native Alaskan, and he was able to draw both inspiration and conflict from his mixed lineage. Throughout his life, Beck was able to create fine masterpieces out of assembled objects, forming public structures, industrial artworks and Inuit inspired masks. Beck started out with painting at the University of Washington, under the tutelage of artists Everett Du Pen and George Tsutakawa. He was also able to teach at the University of Oregon later on.

As a sculptor, Beck began creating works on a large scale. He patronized abstract expressionism and slowly built a reputation for himself as a sculptor, accumulating several art awards and recognitions. He was very fond of using found objects to manipulate into his composition. His 1986 artwork; Punk Walrus Inua was made with whitewall tire, baby moon hubcaps, safety pins, dental mirrors and many other unrelated things. He found his parts from junkshops and old yards, accumulating them in number, till they were enough for him to make use of. Today, Beck's sculptures can be found at the Golden Gate Park in Seattle, the Bellevue Art Museum, the University of Alaska in fairbanks, and many other places around the United States.

Have any of you ever visited the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen an Rhein? The museum is a cornerstone in German art history and houses many of the great masters of the country's various art movements. Near to this esteemed institution, there is a sculpture called the Endlose Treppe. The English translation of the title is the Endless Steps. It's a tall solid structure made of North American Granite and was created by the popular sculptor; Max Bill, for the philosopher Ernst Bloch in 1991. The sculpture's cubist orientation is actually a deep representation of Bloch's ideals called the "Principles of Hope". The vertically endowed sculpture is composed of 19 steps, which stand nearly 10 meters high.

A prime subject for German-inspired philosophical art; Endlose Treppe, is a modern emblem of visual and metaphysical ideals. Its rigid and robust form was done in coherence with its ascending nature, so as not to disturb the natural pattern. Max Bill is a fascinating creator of strong symbolism and aesthetic thought. His wonderful creation stands as an enduring mark in German history.

Have you ever wanted to walk across the solar system and still have both feet flat on the ground? The Somerset Space Walk allows visitors to do something kind of like that. This large sculpture trail is a proportionate model of our entire solar system from the planet sizes to the distances in between them. It makes use of a 22kilometer Bridgwater and Taunton Canal to fully showcase its purpose. The Spacewalk was designed by Philip Robert Vassar Youngman for people to experience how truly large and extraordinary our solar system is. He challenges the flat perceptions of pictures and charts often seen today, because they do now show the full impact of the space we live in.

This bold model is built on a small scale of 1 is to 530,000,000. Such a scale is needed because of it optimal comparison to the actual solar system and heavenly bodies. one milimeter on the scaled replica is equal to the measurement of 530 kilometers. The project itself was a joint venture by Taunton Solar Model Group and British Waterways. The planets each have a description under them and are held up by stone blocks for a strong durability. It was very difficult to consider adding anything aside from the sun and planets because of the distance factor. Including the nearest star for example would entail placing it over 70,000 kilometers away. The entire trail can be walked from the Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton or from theBridgwaters Morrison's Supermarket. Such a powerful display of the space outside of what we know, can be our own link into experiencing the feeling of a larger-than-life ambiance.

A man that holds a great passion for technology and art can be expected to end up as a graphic designer, webmaster or user interface designer, but this man took it to the next level. Meet Petrus Wandrey, techno-sculptor and designer. His proclamation of the Digitalist movement with his panel Science and Beyond at Fordham University in the late 1970's. Wandrey's style is deeply linked with the concept elements of computers and modern sciences. His usage of pixel-inspired traits in his artworks is a common part of his creative process.

Wandrey explored many field like furniture design, graphic design, textile design and the traditional media of painting and sculpture. He did a lot of computer-based designing in his early years, helping several clients like TransAtlantik Magazine make there way into the market. As an artist, he now integrates the various components into his style, but does this not only in the literal sense, but also in the sense of aesthetic inspiration. He studied diodes, microchips and circuit boards to visually create his digitally-inspired sculptures and paintings. Some of his group exhibitions include famous art shows at Bodenburg, Hamburg, Leverkusen and Berlin. Today, Wandrey's melding of digital and tradional art inspires the high-tech community to bridge borders and try creating new novelties for the world of art, science and lifestyle.

At the young age of fifteen, Jeremy Langford began his artistic experimentations with the medium of glass. Using an old ceramic kiln that he found, he began melting old and recycled bottles to create his very first works of stained glass.

Later on, he went to the London Film School where he met a good mentor that eventually gave him his educational foundation and practical knowledge on working with glass. This gave Langford exactly what he needed to pursue his real passion of creating marvelous glass art.  During the 1970's Langford travelled back and forth from U.K. to Israel and continued honing his skills in fabricating glass creations. He conceptualized several pieces which he later created on a monumental scale and displayed in several of the areas that he visited. His wife, the late Yael Langford, was a quantum chemist who together with him, studied the various effect of art on the human brain and consciousness.

Langford's contribution to the world of glass is vast, mostly comprised of great works set across municipal halls, museums and public or government locations. Recently, his studio has also been working on three giant sculpture pieces for the Trump International Towers, as well as another huge artwork for the Miami Four Seasons Hotel. His creations have spread across New York, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills as well. Langford's creative genius for glass sculpture has its foundation in his personal connection between art and spirituality. He often compares the tangible traits of glass to the human state of searching for a spiritual dimension. Today, many international halls including the Supreme Court Building in Jerusalem and the Brtish Museum in London take pride in housing the work made by Langford, because of their exquisite beauty and wonderful depth.

Every sculptor and collector already knows who Dale Chihully is. The master of glass himself made an appearance at the famous TED Talks last 2010. His works are indeed an inspiration to the younger and aspiring generations of glass artists. Most of the big countries around the globe carry monumental floating or free standing glass pieces by Chihully, but even the smaller nations already have a following of the artist's strong stylistic designs in glass. Despite this, I do believe that he intends to do more. Aside from establishing the Pilchuck Glass School near Stanwood, Wahington, Chihully also set up his largest permanent exhibition at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Photography by Andrew Dunn (2004) from Andrew Dunn Photos

His story is one of triumph, because although not many know this, Chihully had a lot against him in his life as an artist. Did you know for example, that the trademark eyepatch he wears was due to a car accident? His face was severely cut by glass and he was blinded in that one eye. Despite this, he continued his glassblowing work and amazingly still grew as an artist and a designer. Later on he dislocated his shoulder and wasn't able to hold the glass-blowing pipe any longer, but after that he still desired to continue the craft. With the help of his own studio people, he continues to design and create supreme masterpieces of highly visual creative works. Chihully's accidents did not change his mind at all in its intention to become number one in the glass industry. After all that, he still made it.

As far as modern sculpture goes, many people often say that the visual impact goes as far as the eye can see. For Len Lye, "as far as the eye can see" was literal.  In 1999, he created an astounding 45 meter fibreglass sculpture called The Wind Wand. This elongated contemporary public sculpture holds a globe at the end of its long tube. This sphere glows red at night time because it contains over a thousand light-emitting diodes inside it. As a whole sculpture, The Wind Wand can bend its vertical orientation to sway with the natural air currents. Its maximum bend can go to over 20 meters even if it weights around 900kg. This is because aside from fibreglass, its structure is also entwined with carbon fiber, a very durable, yet flexible modern material used in things like helicopter blades and automotive elements.

This sculpture is an unusual beacon both in the daylight and in the evening. Contemporary sculptures don't always need to maintain an out-of-this-world level of complexity, just a sense of original idea that affects how people experience it. This simple vertical installation isn't the most groundbreaking idea in the history of art, nor is it comparable to the aesthetic structure of the bird's nest stadium at the Beijing olympics, but it makes us stop and take a look. It makes people wonder why someone would install such a sculpture and how he came about doing so. Contemporary art means art that inspires a certain kind of human curiosity that we all smile at in one way or another. It is the art of making things different from the ordinary.

An evolving movement of abstract sculpture has hit the Philippines since 2007 and the population of its art followers in the community continues to grow. The country has always been known for its history of painters and sculptors that played a crucial role in the development of a society. Juan Luna for example, was a Filipino painter that aided in the struggle for independence along with Jose Rizal, the country's national hero.

Recently, the biggest art hub in the Philippines; the Artwalk at the SM Megamall (Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila) has been a prime hot-spot for local and international collectors to view and experience a taste of true Philippine and Asian art. Sculpture is a novelty that has emerged from the recent modernist trends that encircle the local art scene. Many of the emerging talent has been drawn from the new generations that have been exposed to the path left by the historical 13 moderns (referring to 13 artists that have paved the way for modernism after the period of realism brought about by the influence of Fernando Amorsolo).

Galleries like the Artasia Gallery, Gallery Nine and Gallery Anna situated at the Artwalk are currently exhibiting several of these artistic modernist sculptors that are also beginning to catch the attention of the international art community through their successive exhibitions in foreign cities. Even online galleries from the Philippines are starting to revolutionize the sculpture world on the internet. "Sculptor.Asia" by local young artist Kylo Chua has gotten the community to appreciate sculpture in a whole new light by using 360 degree viewing technology.


Many people gravitate towards art because it tells a story of how things came about. This is most definitely true for the newer generations of Filipinos that have started to come out of their imperialist shell, and begin to create an identity for a deeply creative nation rooted in the foundations of visual symbolism.