John Newman makes rich, complicated sculpture. He brings together materials and techniques used by local artisans from around the world to make concentrated and intricate objects. Sisal and bark, braided copper wire, rice paper and paste are fashioned into substantial, aggregated forms. Newman is impelled by and urges his viewers to consider an intimate rapport with objects.
Newman’s drawings and prints compress the role of drawing and sculpture. He depicts illusionistic spaces and forms that defy physical laws, like Piranesi’s visionary architecture.
Newman recently visited Shark’s to make four prints: Head First, Second Head First, A small monument to Heliotropism and Looking through to ‘Light and lace-maker’. These prints are both specific in formal design and yet elicit a wide spectrum of responses – they ask to be interrogated, mediated upon, and, marveled at.
Newman’s work is in many public collections including the Albertina Museum, Vienna, The Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum, the National Gallery of Berlin, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
John Newman received a Prix de Rome fellowship for 2003/2004.
For more information visit the artist’s web site www.johnnewmanstudio.com.
