Sculpture - Stuart Allen - Page 2
Stuart Allen is an artist whose work deals with fundamental elements of perception such as light, time, gravity and space. He has shown photographs, kites and sculpture in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and abroad. His work is found in many private and public collections including the Tokyo Kite Museum, the Crocker Art Museum, the DiRosa Art Preserve, UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, and U.S. Embassy collections in Canada, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Georgia. Allen has completed permanent public art commissions for the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada and the Police Headquarters building in Davis, CA. His work has been published in a variety of books and journals including: Picturing California’s Other Landscape: the Great Central Valley, Terra Nova: Nature and Culture, You Are Here: the Journal of Creative Geography, Zyzzyva and Artweek. Allen has lectured or served as a visiting artist at many fine institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Weisman Art Museum, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and a number of university art departments nationwide. Allen studied architecture at Kansas University and graduated from the photography and video department of the Kansas City Art Institute in 1994. He lives in San Antonio, Texas with his wife Kelly Lyons, their daughter Aidan and son Vincent. Allen is represented by the following galleries: PDNB, Dallas, TX; JayJay, Sacramento, CA; Jan Manton Art, Brisbane, Australia; Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO.
Stuart Allen, artist, photographer, sculptor, public art, kite, kite maker, art consultant, Jayjay, haw contemporary, pdnb gallery, science and art
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Archive

October 6, 2015

Kite Table

Kite Table, 2015
galvanized steel, powder coated steel
table: 10′ x 6′ x 32″
light fixture: 15′ x 6′ x 18″

Permanent installation: Hemisfair Park, San Antonio, TX

The Kite Table is a platform for gathering and a cross-cultural reference point. The form is derived from folded paper, but fabricated with plate steel. The table top is an abstracted reference to a diamond kite, the most recognizable of western kite shapes. Etched onto the surface of the table are diagrams for making kites from four different countries: Japan, Korea, Guatemala and the United States – all countries that had a presence during the HemisFair ’68 World’s Fair. In addition to the diagram, a web address is etched into the surface where visitors can find additional information about the construction and cultural significance of each kite style. Standing next to the table is a custom light fixture that references a kite in flight.

The kite-making instructions on the table’s surface are explicit, but the primary intent is to inspire individuals and families to engage in a fulfilling outdoor activity. In this sense, the table is a conceptual object, suggesting the potential of open public space coupled with imagination.

For more information about the Kite Table: CLICK HERE

Collection of the City of San Antonio, commissioned through Public Art San Antonio.

December 11, 2014

Gaillardia pulchella and Lupinus texensis

Lupinus texensis (Texas Bluebonnet), 2013
auto-animating panels: fritted glass, acrylic, ink, l.e.d. light source
3 panels: each 48 x 48 inches

Gaillardia pulchella (Indian Blanket), 2013
auto-animating panels: fritted glass, acrylic, ink, l.e.d. light source
4 panels: each 16 x 56 inches

Permanent Installation: Trinity University, Center for Sciences and Innovation

The colors embedded in these auto-animating panels are drawn from Texas native wildflowers: Gaillardia pulchella and Lupinus texensis. The artist extracted single points of color from photographs of the flowers to build the palettes for the artwork. The assembly of each frame includes a layer of ceramic fritted glass, an array of thin colored lines printed on a layer of clear acrylic, a light diffusion layer, and an l.e.d. light source. The precise relationship between the frequency of the printed colors and the fritted lines of the glass layer results in the color shifting phenomenon you witness as you move past the panels.

December 2, 2014

Low Resolution Kites

Low Resolution Kites, 2010
pigment prints on Tyvek, bamboo, string, 2010
dimensions – square: 35″ x 25″, tall: 84″ x  19″

from the Artist Statement:

Regardless of its size in the studio or on the ground, any kite will be eaten up by the enormity of the sky. It’s humbling to spend days or months working on a large piece, then send it aloft and watch it sink into the vastness of the sky. Kites are designed to recede in space – to travel away from the viewer. I am interested in playing with that change in viewing distance. Up close, the heavily pixilated imagery is an abstraction. Viewed from a distance the pixels resolve into a recognizable image.

January 14, 2015

Color Shift

Three colors are extracted from a digital photograph. The colors are used to construct a pigment print made up of thin vertical lines in a repeating pattern. The print is placed behind a 1/4″ thick piece of architectural glass with a ceramic-frit line pattern on the front. Due to the very precise relationship between the lines in the print and the line pattern of the glass, the works appear to change color as the viewer moves relative to the piece. The location of the original photograph and the source of the colors are indicated in small text along the bottom of the print.

Though the panels themselves are static, the movement of the viewer initiates a dynamic, animated effect. Without movement they are fields of color. With movement, time and space are activated to create a more complex engagement.

December 2, 2014

Aloft

Aloft, 2010
U.V. ink on aluminum, string
5 pieces: each 9′ x 2′ x 80′

temporary installation: San Antonio International Airport
permanent installation: Rackspace, San Antonio, TX

Panel text courtesy of Rackspace:

Allen has been working with kites since the early 1990’s. He has constructed hundreds of them, from tiny objects flown on a thread, to aluminum sails designed to fly underwater, to huge paper and bamboo kites that require several adults to manage. The installation at Rackspace, entitled ALOFT, incorporates five kite forms that are based on traditional Japanese kite designs. Extremely low-resolution images of the sky are printed on the aluminum surface of the kites. Allen explains the connection between the imagery and kites as follows:

Regardless of its size in the studio or on the ground, any kite will be eaten up by the enormity of the sky. It’s humbling to spend days or months working on a large piece and then send it aloft to watch it sink into the vastness of the sky. Kites are designed to recede in space – to travel away from the viewer. I am interested in playing with that change in viewing distance. Up close, the heavily pixilated imagery is an abstraction. Viewed from a distance the pixels resolve into a recognizable image.

December 2, 2014

37° 48′ 29″ N ~ 96° 52′ 52″ W

37° 48′ 29″ N ~ 96° 52′ 52″ W, 2010
pvc coated polyester, stainless steel, laminated ash and cherry
each piece: 14′ 3″ x 6′ 1″ x 5′ 4″
overall: approx. 24′ x 24′ x 10′

permanent installation: Butler Community College, El Dorado, Kansas

Three individual forms are suspended from the ceiling and move with the lobby’s interior air currents.

December 2, 2014

San Antonio Riverwalk Installations

29° 25′ 57″ N / 98° 29′ 13″ W, 2009
stainless steel tubing, stainless steel mesh, powder-coating
40′ x 45′ x 10′

29° 26′ 00″ N / 98° 29′ 07″ W, 2009
stainless steel tubing, stainless steel mesh, powder-coating
40′ x 45′ x 10′

permanent installations: San Antonio Riverwalk, San Antonio, TX

29° 25′ 57″ N / 98° 29′ 13″ W and 29° 26′ 00″ N / 98° 29′ 07″ W are permanent installations along the famed Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. The work consists of suspended, stainless steel panels – each enclosing five layers of woven, architectural mesh. The three inner layers of mesh are treated with a powder-coated color. As visitors move by the installations on foot, bicycle or riverboat, the panels change color due to the viewer’s shifting perspective. The project’s 24-color palette was selected from photographs taken along the San Antonio River by the artist’s children Aidan and Vincent (4 1/2 and 1 1/2 when the snapshots were made).

Installed at the McCullough and Brooklyn Avenue underpasses, the project is part of a significant public initiative to expand the San Antonio Riverwalk. Funding for multiple public art commissions along the 1.5 mile development was provided by the San Antonio River Foundation.

December 2, 2014

35 Minutes of Air

35 Box Kites: each 398 cubic inches, the volume of air I breathe in one minute at rest, 2009
sailcloth, fiberglass, string
each kite: 7 3/8″ x 7 3/8″ x 7 3/8″,
overall: 60″ x 60″ x 60″
temporary installation: Gensler Architects, Houston, TX

December 2, 2014

Parallax

Parallax, 2009
UV ink on 1/2″ acrylic, fabric screen
each panel: 60″ x 60″, overall dimensions: approx. 20′ x 10′ x 9′

temporary installation: Artpace, San Antonio, TX
permanent installation: University of Texas, San Antonio

For more information please click here for an artist’s statement.

December 2, 2014

38° 44′ 48″ N ~ 121° 14′ 54″ W

38° 44′ 48″ N ~ 121° 14′ 54″ W, 2009
ash, cherry, pvc coated polyester, string
each piece: 6’7″ x 4’9″ x 2′ 2″
overall: approx. 15′ x 15′ x 14′

permanent installation: Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Women and Children’s Center, Roseville, CA

The three suspended kite forms rotate freely with the air movement in the hospital lobby.