Jonathan Kirk – Abstract Sculpture: Fables, Foibles, and other Machinations

Jonathan Kirk’s sculptures, while abstract, are evocative of a wide range of sources, from the natural and organic world, to forms of industrial and naval architecture. The work illuminates the ways in which the forms of the artist as well as the engineer still embody the mysterious intelligence of their natural models and points to the idea that making is, in a sense, the invention of what might be called ‘cultural machinery.’ His sculptures are rigorously committed to sculptural ‘object-hood,’ yet at the same time contain visual references that suggest a metaphorical context. The pieces relate partial narratives – stories without endings. The collective visual unconscious is plundered and sampled; we have all seen these shapes before but where exactly?

Related Programs:
Lecture and Demo with Sculpture Artist Jonathan Kirk
Saturday, October 15 • 2:00pm
$25.00 / $20.00 Museum Members • GET TICKETS HERE

About Jonathan Kirk
Jonathan Kirk was born in Saffron Walden, Great Britain in 1955. He earned his BFA from St. Martins School of Art, London in 1978 and his MFA from Syracuse University in 1980. Kirk has received grants and awards from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. He has shown widely in group and solo exhibitions and has work in permanent collections throughout the East Coast. From 1980 to 2000 Kirk was the Studio Manager at Sculpture Space Inc. He continues to live and work in Utica, New York. Find more information at www.jonathankirk.net.