Two Outdoor Exhibitions of Sculptures by Michael Joseph Hibbard
Buffalo, NY, June 04, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Michael Joseph Hibbard will exhibit his large-scale metal sculptures this June in two outdoor exhibitions. A solo exhibition of eight works by Hibbard will be held at Griffis Sculpture Park in Ashford Hollow, New York, with an opening reception held on June 20 at 2pm. The exhibition will run through October 31, 2009. An installation of four of Hibbard’s pieces, along with a work by Luisa Caldwell, will be open for viewing on June 1 at Heckscher Park in Huntington, NY. The work will be on display for the next 12 months.
Michael Joseph Hibbard’s sculptures are massive structures, often reaching over 10 feet high. The are made from angular facets of welded sheet metal and recycled material such as shredded tires and plastic bottles. Hibbard paints his sculptures, at times in a single bold hue, but more often in two colors to emphasize individual planes.
While made from welded metal, the sculptures have a lively sense of movement, reaching and bending in space or along the ground. The work is abstract, while reflecting the artist’s interest in contemporary architecture and the industrial forms of Buffalo, NY where he lives and works.
In the Griifis Sculpture Park exhibition, Hibbard will show eight major pieces from the past three years. They show the range of his work and include both monumental towers and horizontally-based pieces. #225 is a vertical form, over six feet tall, with seemingly folded planes of sheet metal. The form bends above the mid-point, and the outer white shaft opens to reveal a niche
of egg-yolk yellow. The change of colors creates for the viewer a new way to read Hibbard’s forms. A second towering form is #223, nearly 11 feet tall, whose flaring base narrows to a tighter vertical extension, ending in a wire mesh cage filled with shredded tires. The sculpture is painted bright red and one of the corners of its base is lifted to reveal the hollow interior.
Also on display in the exhibition is #210 a piece which sits on the ground, rising to a house-like peak and descending down a long articulated slope. With its planes painted silver and deep blue, this piece reflects both Hibbard’s connection to and revision of minimalist sculptural practice. #108 is comprised of an armature with three legs which holds aloft a large panel of steel, with a weathered, striated texture and a highly reflective clear finish.
The Heckscher Park installation includes #191, a blue and rust painted structure, 12 feet tall, that as it extends upwards, bends and reaches out like limb of a tree or of an animal. Also on display is #203, which is suspended from a tree, and comprised of an outer loop of steel and a rounded interior element, whose wire mesh frame holds recycled plastic bottles.
John Mendelsohn wrote that in Hibbard’s work, “...sculpture’s capacity for enclosure, exclusion, shelter and entrapment become a means to make art with an emotional undertow....The language of the industrial infrastructure once stood only for dynamism; it now implies both growth and decay. In Hibbard’s bold, bent forms are intimated the effort to right oneself, keep standing and to reach beyond, while acknowledging the unstable, shifting ground upon which we stand.”
Hibbard has exhibited his sculptures in many group exhibitions including two Area Artist Exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, Diane DeBilzan Gallery, Laguna Beach CA and the NCECA Exhibition at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Hibbard’s work is part of many corporate collections. He received his BS degree in Ceramic Design from Buffalo State College in 2007.
The Griffis Sculpture Park exhibition is sponsored by the Ashford Hollow Foundation, Modern Corporation, and Metro Environmental. For information contact www.griffispark.org or call 716 667-2808. The Heckscher Park installation is sponsored by the Town of Huntington NY.
For further information contact Michael Joseph Hibbard, michaeljoseph@michaeljhibbard.com, 716 352-2059, or www.michaeljhibbard.com.
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Michael Joseph Hibbard’s sculptures are massive structures, often reaching over 10 feet high. The are made from angular facets of welded sheet metal and recycled material such as shredded tires and plastic bottles. Hibbard paints his sculptures, at times in a single bold hue, but more often in two colors to emphasize individual planes.
While made from welded metal, the sculptures have a lively sense of movement, reaching and bending in space or along the ground. The work is abstract, while reflecting the artist’s interest in contemporary architecture and the industrial forms of Buffalo, NY where he lives and works.
In the Griifis Sculpture Park exhibition, Hibbard will show eight major pieces from the past three years. They show the range of his work and include both monumental towers and horizontally-based pieces. #225 is a vertical form, over six feet tall, with seemingly folded planes of sheet metal. The form bends above the mid-point, and the outer white shaft opens to reveal a niche
of egg-yolk yellow. The change of colors creates for the viewer a new way to read Hibbard’s forms. A second towering form is #223, nearly 11 feet tall, whose flaring base narrows to a tighter vertical extension, ending in a wire mesh cage filled with shredded tires. The sculpture is painted bright red and one of the corners of its base is lifted to reveal the hollow interior.
Also on display in the exhibition is #210 a piece which sits on the ground, rising to a house-like peak and descending down a long articulated slope. With its planes painted silver and deep blue, this piece reflects both Hibbard’s connection to and revision of minimalist sculptural practice. #108 is comprised of an armature with three legs which holds aloft a large panel of steel, with a weathered, striated texture and a highly reflective clear finish.
The Heckscher Park installation includes #191, a blue and rust painted structure, 12 feet tall, that as it extends upwards, bends and reaches out like limb of a tree or of an animal. Also on display is #203, which is suspended from a tree, and comprised of an outer loop of steel and a rounded interior element, whose wire mesh frame holds recycled plastic bottles.
John Mendelsohn wrote that in Hibbard’s work, “...sculpture’s capacity for enclosure, exclusion, shelter and entrapment become a means to make art with an emotional undertow....The language of the industrial infrastructure once stood only for dynamism; it now implies both growth and decay. In Hibbard’s bold, bent forms are intimated the effort to right oneself, keep standing and to reach beyond, while acknowledging the unstable, shifting ground upon which we stand.”
Hibbard has exhibited his sculptures in many group exhibitions including two Area Artist Exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, Diane DeBilzan Gallery, Laguna Beach CA and the NCECA Exhibition at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Hibbard’s work is part of many corporate collections. He received his BS degree in Ceramic Design from Buffalo State College in 2007.
The Griffis Sculpture Park exhibition is sponsored by the Ashford Hollow Foundation, Modern Corporation, and Metro Environmental. For information contact www.griffispark.org or call 716 667-2808. The Heckscher Park installation is sponsored by the Town of Huntington NY.
For further information contact Michael Joseph Hibbard, michaeljoseph@michaeljhibbard.com, 716 352-2059, or www.michaeljhibbard.com.
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Contact
Michael Joseph Hibbard
Michael Hibbard
716-667-2808
www.michaeljhibbard.com
Michael Hibbard
716-667-2808
www.michaeljhibbard.com
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