EXPERIENCE SCULPTOR JONATHAN SHAHN HEAD ON AT THE NOYES
The New Jersey Artist Opens New Exhibition at the Oceanville Museum
New Jersey sculptor Jonathan Shahn opens a solo exhibition on November 16 at the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville, N.J. The exhibition, titled Jonathan Shahn: Imaginary Portraits, includes sculpted heads, human forms and figures. Working primarily in wood, Shahn literally creates expressions of life - drawing inspiration from classical busts and sculptures, which he merges with faces of people he knows. The sculptures will be on display through January 6, 2008.
The New Jersey Artist Opens New Exhibition at the Oceanville Museum
New Jersey sculptor Jonathan Shahn opens a solo exhibition on November 16 at the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville, N.J. The exhibition, titled Jonathan Shahn: Imaginary Portraits, includes sculpted heads, human forms and figures. Working primarily in wood, Shahn literally creates expressions of life - drawing inspiration from classical busts and sculptures, which he merges with faces of people he knows. The sculptures will be on display through January 6, 2008.
Shahn has been creating sculptures and drawings representing the human figure since the early 1960s. His life-sized sculptures, carved from enormous wood blocks or formed from plaster, express the honesty and simple elegance of the human figure. Suggestive of Picasso and Giacometti, Shahn’s oversized heads, often perched on elongated or thick neck-like pedestals or placed within boxes, function as portraits of common people. He prefers to work with wood because it is a “slower, more resistant” material that allows his figures to evolve naturally, but he is also known for his smooth plaster sculptures. Most of his wooden sculptures are completed over months. The rough-hewn figures sometimes receive a paraffin coat or brush marks that the artist describes as “directional patterns” and “anatomical suggestions,” implying African, Egyptian and medieval art that is both classical and clean.
