Arne Quinze

Arne Quinze, “The Sequence”, Brussels, Belgium, Wooden Sculpture, November 13, 2008-November 13, 2013

The Sequence is a monumental public sculpture designed by Belgian artist and designer Arne Quinze. The artistic intervention located in the heart of Brussels is made from wood and concrete connecting the Flemish Parliament to the House of Representatives physically and symbolically. Acting as a bridge between the public and the government neighbors, it promotes urban interaction and communication.

Quinze lives and works in Sint Martens Latem nearby Ghent, Belgium.

Andy Scott

Andy Scott, Structual Steel with Stainless Steel Cladding, Falkrik, Scotland

The Kelpies are two towering horse-head sculptures, standing next to the Forth and Clyde Canal, in Helix park, in Falkrik, in Scotland. The sculptures form a gateway at the eastern entrance to the Forth and Clyde canal, and the new canal extension built as part of The Helix land transformation project. The 300-ton, 30-meter sculptures were created by Glasgow artist Andy Scott,inspired by the shape shifting mythological creature by the same name that haunts the rivers and streams of Scotland and is known to posses the strength and endurance of 10 horses – quality that is analogous with the transformational change and endurance of Scotland’s inland waterways. The Kelpies represent the lineage of the heavy horse of Scottish industry and economy, pulling the wagons, ploughs, barges and coalships that shaped the geographical layout of the Falkirk area.

Matthew Harding

Sculptures by Matthew Harding, Australia

While diverse in materials and processes, Australian artist Matthew Harding’s works demonstrate a common theme and investigation into the experiential aspect of form and materiality. He creates objects to be interacted with, touched, sat on, objects that reflect and morph; objects which have a vital and poetic relationship to the environment they are in and the people who interact with them.

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, “Circle of Animals/ Zodiac Heads”, Somerset House, London, England, 12 Bronze Casts, Each Ten Feet Tall.

Despite acclaim in his home country – receipt of the Chinese Contemporary Art Award for Lifetime Contribution in 2008; his close work with architects Herzog & de Meuron in designing the “Bird’s Nest” National Olympic Stadium for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games; his reputation as one of China’s top artists; and his father’s status as one of China’s most renowned poets – contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has frequently found himself at odds with the Chinese government.

Such is the case in 2011 as his “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads” went on view in the courtyard of London’s Somerset House. What was originally scheduled as a press call to interview Ai Weiwei and an opportunity to photograph the artist with his “Circle of Animals” was altered to a sans artist event due to his disappearance in early April of 2011. Ai Weiwei’s whereabouts were unknown. Although no explanation was given for his disappearance, it was widely believed Ai Weiwei was detained by Chinese authorities in response to the online publication of a photograph featuring Ai Weiwei naked except for a toy horse covering his genitals along with a caption in Mandarin that could be interpreted as “Fuck your mother, the party central committee.”

In 21 June 2012, Ai Weiwei’s bail was lifted. Although he is allowed to leave Beijing, the police informed him that he is still prohibited from traveling to other countries because he is “suspected of other crimes,” including pornography, bigamy and illicit exchange of foreign currency. As of 2014, he remains under heavy surveillance and restrictions of movement, but continues to criticize through his work.

Chris Burdon

Chris Burdon, “Urban Light”, Installation of 202 Restored Cast Iron City Street Lights, 2008, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Standing in front of LACMA, “Urban Light” consists of 202 restored cast-iron street lamps, most of which used to light the streets of Southern California. Burden began collecting street lamps in 2000 without a specific work in mind. Ranging from 20 to 30 feet tall, there are a total of 17 different lamp styles represented in Burden’s sampling. Photos do not do this installation justice; you have to be there at night to experience it fully.

James Turrell

Light Installations by James Turrell

A MacArthur Fellow in 1984, James Turrell is an American artist primarily concered with light and space. He received his BA degree from Pomona College in the field of perceptual psychology.in 1965 and also studied mathematics, geology and astronomy at Pomona College. He began making artwork using light projection while enrolled in the graduate Studio Art program at the University of California, Irvine in 1966. Later in 1973 he received an MA degree in art from Claremont Graduate University and an honorary doctorate in 2004 by Haverford College.

Turrell is also known for his light tunnels and light projections that create shapes that seem to have mass and weight, though they are created with only light. Turrell’s 1968 projection of a suspended luminous pink pyramid, Raethro Pink, was acquired by the Welsh National Museum of Art. His work “Acton” is a very popular exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It consists of a room that appears to have a blank canvas on display, but the “canvas” is actually a rectangular hole in the wall, lit to look otherwise.

“I had an interest in art, but my first interest was in light. I was fascinated by light.”

-James Turrell

Lead Pencil Studio

Lead Pencil Studio, “Negative Billboard”, 2015, Blaine, Washington

Lead Pencil Studio created this sculpture from small, blackened stainless steel rods. Assembled together, it creates the negative space of a billboard. This sculpture was created in under a year, fabricated in 6 major pieces The installation took 14 days. The United States federal government commissioned this public art to promote nothing but air and “…the beauty of North American skies.”

Ervin Loranth Herve

Ervin Loranth Herve, “Popped Up”. Szechenyi Square, Budapest

Artist Ervin Loránth Hervé created an impressive sculpture called “Popped Up” that depicts a giant man crawling out of the earth. The polystyrene sculpture is located at Széchenyi Square in Budapest, Hungary, and was one of the highlights for the Art Market Budapest 2014 international contemporary art fair.

Anish Kapoor

Anish Kapoor, “Memory”, Cor-Ten Steel Installation, 2008, Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin

Anish Kapoor’s 2008 “Memory” is a site-specific work that was conceived to engage two different exhibition locations at the Guggenheim museums in Berlin and New York. Utilizing Cor-Ten steel for the first time, the sculpture represents a milestone in Kapoor’s career. Memory’s thin steel skin, only eight millimeters thick, suggests a form that is ephemeral and unmonumental. The sculpture appears to defy gravity as it gently glances against the periphery of the gallery walls and ceiling. However, as a 24-ton volume, Memory is also raw, industrial, and foreboding.

Positioned tightly within the gallery, Memory is never fully visible; instead the work fractures and divides the gallery into several distinct viewing areas. The division compels visitors to navigate the museum, searching for vantage points that offer only glimpses of the sculpture. This processional method of viewing Memory is an intrinsic aspect of the work. Visitors are asked to contemplate the ensuing fragmentation by attempting to piece together images retained in their minds, exerting effort in the act of seeing—a process Kapoor describes as creating a “mental sculpture.”

Memory’s rusting exterior creates a powdery surface, which relates this commission to Kapoor’s early pigment pieces from the 1980s. Rather than necessitating an additional coat of paint to smooth the interior curvature, the sculpture’s Cor-Ten tiles, perfectly manufactured to prevent light from seeping through, create the necessary conditions for darkness within. The work’s square aperture—wedged precisely into one of the gallery’s walls—allows a view into this boundless interior void.

The endless darkness seems to contradict what visitors know about the work’s delimited exterior. This contradiction between the known and the perceived is one of Kapoor’s central interests. The window also defines a two-dimensional plane that can be read as a painting rather than an opening. Kapoor’s interest in this pictorial effect is best reflected in his statement “I am a painter working as a sculptor.”