 |
| image credit: Aaron Curry, courtesy MichaelWerner Gallery, New York |
Perhaps better known to the average person for his monumental outdoor sculptures recently gracing parks in Dallas, New York and Paris, Texas-born but LA-based Aaron Curry (b. 1972) only delved into outdoor sculpture around 2010. But in addition to this, he also works on “domestic” sized sculpture (which is how I know his work), using plywood and cardboard to craft wonderfully mystical forms from sketches made on his computer tablet.
Anyone looking at contemporary art in the last 15 years knows that much of it has to do with a concept, mainly derived from artists like Marcel Duchamp. But what is a young artist doing by looking at Pablo Picasso and the early modernists instead?
 |
|
image credit: Aaron Curry, courtesy David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles
|
Maybe this is the clue we need to pay attention to somebody like Curry. Although his work has a very slight element of the conceptual, mostly brought on by OUR conversation of what a contemporary piece ought to be, it seems his art is more straightforward and at the same time, hard to fit into a stylistic category.
 |
|
image credit: Aaron Curry, courtesy David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles
|
Curry is admittedly influenced by the painterly abstractions of Pablo Picasso, in particular the Demoiselles d’ Avignon, that bring forth elements of primitive art. But if you look closer, you also see shape and forms evocative of Alexander Calder, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. And it doesn’t end there. His biomorphic figures also remind me of Joao Miro in 3D … and if you look at his recent work, it seems he’s even channeling Jean-Michel Basquiat!
 |
| image credit: Aaron Curry, courtesy Kclogblog |
There is nothing wrong with art that appears “easier” to understand, than let’s say, a handful of Chinese fortune cookies painted yellow and thrown on the floor. It’s impossible to say now, but it may be that the future holds Curry, one who naturally took the other fork on the road, as one of the better artists of our times.note: In a stroke of coincidence, it was just announced that Curry has been tapped to create 14 monumental sculptures for New York’s Lincoln Center to be installed in the main plaza around the fountain starting this Fall. Another example of this artist’s rising star!
richard rabel
principal
richard rabel: interiors + art
interior design and art advising
new york city
The artist is represented by Michael Werner Gallery, New York and David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles
Subscribe | Follow