John Newman: Fit
April 14, 2014
In the red and on the hot seat
2014
extruded and fabricated copper with enamel paint, wood, wood putty, papier mâché, Japanese paper, steel wire, acqua resin, acrylic and oil paint
21 ½ x 21 ½ x 21 ½ inches
Hanging in there with a shiny center
2013
quartz, glass, aluminum armature wire, epoxy paste, wood, wood putty, papier mâché, sisal, Japanese paper, foam, nylon micro-filament, acrylic paint, palladium leaf
21 x 16 x 10 ½ inches
Colors balance on a silver rope trick
2013
palladium gilded cast bronze, steel, aluminum screen, acqua resin, acrylic paint
15 ½ x 42 x 6 ½ inches
Celadon green with a broad brush
2014
computer generated and milled spalted maple, dark annealed and galvanized wire, cast Lucite, epoxy paste, gravel, wood papier mâché, steel wire, Japanese paper, acqua resin, acrylic paint
18 x 36 x 18 inches
Pink and bound and level at the edge
2013
gourds, lead, rope, wood, wood putty, papier mâché, foam, acqua resin, acrylic paint
16 x 38 x 21 inches
Lavender and “underneath the big umbrella”
2014
computer generated and milled foam, extruded, cast and fabricated aluminum, wood, acqua resin, acrylic and oil paint
24 x 20 x 24 inches
Out of the blue
2014
cast and polished bronze from wooden burl, extruded aluminum, cast acqua resin, wood, wood putty, papier mâché, foam, Japanese paper, aluminum screening, acrylic paint, chalk
25 ¾ x 40 ½ x 12 inches
Violet barely there and behind
2013
extruded aluminum, aluminum armature wire, epoxy paste, mutex, wood, acrylic paint
14 ½ x 29 ½ x 7 ½ inches
Sky-blue and undercover
2014
computer generated and milled foam, extruded aluminum, wood, acqua resin, lead, acrylic paint
18 ½ x 26 x 26 inches
Discussion stick with a hot spot
2014
stone, wood, satin, felt, cotton bunting, nylon micro-filament, papier mâché, acqua resin, graphite wood, acrylic paint, palladium leaf
16 x 12 x 30 inches
Mint-green and tabling the proposition
2013
extruded aluminum, wood, wood putty, acqua resin, papier mâché, foamcore, Japanese paper, acrylic and oil paint
26 x 24 x 24 inches
Discussion stick with a cool head
2014
vacuum-formed Plexiglas, cast polyester resin, bronze rod, marble, wood, wood putty, acqua resin, acrylic paint
18 ½ x 12 ½ x 24 inches
There are endless ways of appreciating John Newman’s incomparable singularity […] By revealing a willfulness to persist in pursuit of a vision that emphatically demands a precise pictorial language—one that correlates with its differences, materially and formally—Newman has created another kind of sculpture in which different forms sing independent melodies that harmonize with the orchestration of his unending interest in all things.
Phong Bui, from the exhibition catalogue essay, 2014
The Tibor de Nagy Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by the much admired sculptor John Newman. This marks his second solo exhibition with the gallery.
The exhibition will comprise twelve new sculptures as well as a group of new drawings completed over the last two years. These very recent and often wildly colorful sculptures are somewhat larger than the tabletop-size sculptures for which he has been known for the past 20 years. The new group of work has been inspired by diverse subjects such as non-Euclidean geometry, tribal arts, Baroque art and architecture, and Japanese flower arranging, among others. The artist incorporates an array of materials from the traditional to the exotic. The materials include found objects and industrial “accidents” such as discarded extruded aluminum, and his various processes incorporate unusual techniques ranging from the hand-built to the computer generated.
John Newman’s work has been the subject of over 50 one-person exhibitions and numerous group shows throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. His work has been included in major museum exhibitions and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum, the Tate, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, to name just a few. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the Rome Prize, the Guggenheim, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the NEA, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Gottlieb Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Tiffany Foundation, and he was a Senior Fulbright Scholar to India. He received a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from Yale University of Art. This summer he will be an artist-in-residence at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, Italy, as well as artist-in-residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, in the spring of 2015.