"Sculpture is the art of the hole and the lump". - Auguste Rodin
Photo by Brad Reed
ARTIST STATEMENT As a maker of objects, I aspire to create beautiful sculptures that energize their surrounding space and actively engage with the viewer. Inspired by everything from science and technology, to nature and myth, my work is about tapping into the essence of things to generate compelling, cryptic symbols that are open to personal interpretation. This encourages each person to have the space to draw from the unique, rich perspective of their own lives.
My visual language is inspired by imagery found in the organic world, as well as the manufactured, into a balanced, unified whole. Individual units are formed into something greater than the sum of its parts.
Using steel as my primary medium, pieces are carefully assembled and crafted. It is an intriguing challenge to take the cold, rigid density of metal and transform it into something which effuses light; to make it pulsate with the force of life.
This can also be viewed as metaphor for our spiritual nature, as these sculptures allude to our human potential for transformation and even transcendence.This notion is well expressed in the words of the great contemporary sculptor, Isamu Noguchi, who stated: “it is weight that gives meaning to weightlessness.”
ARTIST BIO
Brad Konick was born in 1966 in Phoenix, Arizona.
In 1989 he earned a Bachelor of Science in Design (BSD) degree from the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University. In the final months of his undergraduate studies, the nearby scent of cut wood and molten metal enticed him into the sculpture department. There, the hands-on contact with materials, and liberation from the technical constraints of architecture, allowed Konick to explore his designs in a freer and more intimate medium. From there, he went on to post-baccalaureate sculpture studies at ASU, then to the graduate sculpture program at Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Konick's first realized sculptural work was purchased by the late, renowned painter, Fritz Scholder. As a young, impressionable artist, this was an encouraging sign.
Ensuing work experiences in the relevant fields of wood & metal fabrication, metal foundry, architectural metalwork, construction, corporate art, museum exhibit preparation, and art instruction, proved invaluable in expanding his knowledge and skills, and continue to enrich his professional sculpture work.
His current focus is on commissioned work as well as new studio pieces. In 2008 he completed a 20-foot tall, six-thousand pound monolithic metal sculpture; a public art commission for a new Light Rail station in Phoenix. That same year he had a solo exhibition of new work at the Sylvia Plotkin Museum in Scottsdale, Arizona. In 2005 he exhibited a new steel sculpture at the Phoenix Art Museum as a recipient of a prestigious Contemporary Forum’s Artist Grant. Konick also received critical acclaim in the Arizona Republic and New Times for exhibitions at 515 Artspace in the resurgent downtown Phoenix cultural scene.
Having resided in Seattle, New York, San Francisco and Santa Fe, Brad Konick currently lives and maintains a work studio in Phoenix.
