Leslie Sacks Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of California-based sculptor, Jon Krawczyk and his recent vibrant geometric stainless-steel sculptures. The exhibition will present a range of work from large-scale gem-like sculptures at 5-8 feet tall and smaller to mid-scale works. For the past fifteen years, Jon Krawczyk has worked in fluid, biomorphic sculptural forms of stainless steel and bronze. Polished stainless steel evokes the likeness of liquid and the twists of metal illicit stunning reflections.
There exists a sheer strength and force required in forging his work, but the physicality of the practice is translated and channeled into the sculpture. A recent commission inspired something of a shift in his aesthetic into geometric compositions swathed with brilliant pops of color. This fresh perspective coalesced with his keen eye for form and balance yielding a dynamic new body of work. The synergy of the gleaming silver surfaces, infused with an eye-popping neon palette produces quite the impact. Krawczyk credits Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate (better known as The Bean in Chicago) as a completely transformative inspiration and the origin of incorporating polished metal into his work.
Mesmerized at the way in which visitors interact with their reflections in Kapoor's monumental work, he admires the public accessibility and playfulness it engenders. Similarly, the ultra-polished planes of Krawczyk's work add exponential dimension both aesthetically and conceptually within the environments they reside. They possess a kind of infinite spectrum of perception and engagement. The work is purely abstract with an emotional undercurrent explored through each composition.
Krawczyk is interested in the inescapable conversation and relationship between viewer, sculpture and environs. The intersection of levity and design, consequence and form are of great import. In addition to Anish Kapoor, Krawczyk cites sculptors Constantin Brancusi, Henry Moore and David Smith as major influences, while also looking to abstract painters like Jackson Pollock, Joan Miro and his contemporary Wolf Kahn. In his bronze work he employs several layers of patina in an attempt to create deep colors on top of each other like some of the great landscape artists. Jon Krawczyk was born in Boynton, New Jersey and graduated from Connecticut College in 1992. It was his father's love of sculpture that drew him to the medium. He studied fine art throughout Europe before moving west to California in the 1990s. Early in his career he apprenticed with many acclaimed sculptors and icons of the second generation of great American metal sculptors.
Over the last 20 years Krawczyk has parlayed these significant experiences into his aesthetic and studio practice. Jon Krawczyk has exhibited in several galleries across the United States and placed in many prestigious private art collections around the world. Several of Jon Krawczyk's most recent projects are large-scale, site-specific, public art installations at high profile locations in Silicon Valley-San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle-Bellevue, Los Angeles-Beverly Hills, Metropolitan New York, and New Jersey.
Leslie Sacks Gallery is located in Santa Monica at Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Suite B6. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday 10-6, Saturday 11-6.
For more information visit lesliesacks.com, email gallery@lesliesacks.com or call 310 264 0640.
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