In the Blog
E Club Sign Up
Arvada Center
6901 Wadsworth Blvd
Arvada, CO 80003
Box Office
(720) 898-7200
Robert Mangold, Thomas Claesson & Carl Reed
January 12 - April 1, 2012
 |
| sculpture, Robert Mangold |
|
Anemotive Kinetic 8/08, powder coated stainless |
Main Gallery
Jan 12 - April 1, 2012
The beauty of Colorado has been an inspiration to artists in providing them free expression and creativity through an array of visual mediums. This January the Arvada Center will present several artists who are featured in the 2009 publication Colorado Abstract: Paintings and Sculpture, including an ambitious retrospective of work from the highly regarded “Dean of Colorado Contemporary Sculpture” artist Robert Mangold.
Time, Space and Motion, presented in the Main Gallery, in outdoor areas surrounding the Arvada Center and on the grounds at the Arvada City Hall, is an impressive retrospective spanning Robert Mangold’s career from 1955 to present day.
Pieces on loan from The Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, University of Denver, The Museum of Outdoor Art, and many private collections will be featured in this stunning exhibition of work.
For more than 50 years, sculptor Robert Mangold has remained
devoted to creating large indoor and outdoor pieces that can be seen
not only across Denver but also throughout the world. Mangold’s four
distinct artistic series will be featured in the Arvada exhibition:
Anemotives, I-Beam, Tetrahedralhypersphere and PTTSAAES (a Point
Traveling Through Space At An Erratic Speed). Arts writer, Mary Voelz
Chandler said in an article about the artist, “The laws of science
exert a powerful force on sculptor Robert Mangold. 
Space, time and motion have driven Mangold’s work since the Indiana native was studying sculpture in the 1950’s. Among his teachers at Indiana University was the great George Rickey, whose own exploration of movement resulted in a legendary career of creating kinetic objects. For Mangold, however, the future was to bring recognition for his investigation into how motion grows from nature and expresses itself.
Born in 1930, this pioneer in kinetic sculpture moved to Denver in the 1960’s to teach at the University of Denver, but a few years took time off to devote himself to making art. He had several one-person shows in Denver and was exhibiting around the country, but Mangold reentered the university setting when the Metropolitan State College of Denver opened in 1965. He designed the art department for Metro and remained professor of sculpture there for 29 years. Throughout, he stayed busy in the studio, creating bodies of work that have defined his career while gaining a national and international reputation. In 1981, he became a founder of FORM Inc. sculpture group, a like-minded assemblage of artists (Carl Reed, Bill Vielehr and Jerry Wingren among them) who worked in abstract forms. Over the years, the FORM alums have continued to show, including at the gallery Mangold’s wife Peggy founded in the mid-1980’s; Art Yard remains a key exhibition space for sculpture.”
 |
| Carl Reed and Thomas Claesson, Rib, wood and iron, 2009 |
Theater Gallery
Lost and Found:Thomas Claesson & Carl Reed
Found objects often appear inconsequential to the casual eye
but to artist Carl Reed, disregarded items become visual treasures.
A fortunate friendship forged over the Atlantic Ocean brought together abstract Colorado artist Reed and Swedish resident Thomas Claesson - who has assembled an
enormous collection of objects that have washed ashore, been abandoned, been
unearthed and acquired through inheritance.
These objects have been assembled
into an eclectic display of found art that possesses an inherent aesthetic
power that allows them to stand on their own. Some of the pieces featured include 18” iron nails, textiles from 1800’s
and a broom. Don’t miss what they have found!
