Description
53rd Annual Mark Twain Library Art Show
Artist’s Bio:
Babette Bloch
Babette Bloch is a pioneer in the use of laser-cut and water-jet stainless steel to create evocative works of art, ranging in scale from tabletop to monumental. Her sculptures explore form and the interplay between object and light, reflect their environments, and expand the ways in which stainless steel is used in contemporary art. Bloch received both classical and modern training at the University of California, Davis including study with legendary artists Wayne Thiebaud, Robert Arneson, and Manuel Neri. Her personal style projects her eclectic tastes, her sometimes-whimsical visions, her pleasure in aesthetics, and her technical curiosity.
She divides her time between site-specific one-of-a-kind public artworks and limited-edition works, both wall-hung and in-the-round. Drawing on several traditions in American art, she creates works that touch on Modernist abstraction, the cut outs and collage found in Pop art, and the long-standing practice of story telling in art.
Bloch develops exquisitely refined black-on-white drawings that are then computer scanned. Based upon the scale she has chosen, a computer-driven laser beam precisely cuts the forms out of sheets of stainless steel, the thickness pre-determined by the structural needs of the project. Bloch then wields a hand-held grinding machine as her paintbrush, adding lyricism and dimensionality to each water or laser cut section. Working with industrial shaping machinery, the works are shaped and finely welded. The completed sculptures are both reflective of surroundings colors and compelling portals to the landscape beyond. They have been described as “ethereal, magical and transportive.”
In her larger works, Bloch dialogues with structural engineers in refining the drawings and determining the gauge of the metal and the connections between the metal sections.
Babette Bloch’s Reflecting History series of large-scale public commissions includes The Pioneers, two 9’ high works in Ganges, MI, and her four Lowcountry Trail Sculptures at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC. Her 16’ high stainless steel Vitruvian Man monument dedicated to the genius of Leonardo da Vinci is permanently in Shelton, CT at Enterprise Corporate Park. The second fabrication in her edition of five was unveiled and dedicated in Tainan Metropolitan Park as welcoming portal to the CHIMEI Museum, in Tainan, Taiwan. The park and museum average one million visitors each year.
Bloch’s Reflecting Nature series explores the themes of flora and fauna. An ever-changing exhibit of these works, Steel Garden: Babette Bloch has traveled since 2014, including exhibits at the National Arts Club, NYC; Mattatuck Museum of Art in CT; the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, IN; the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden in West Palm Beach, FL, Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells inlet SC, Harmon-Meek Gallery in Naples, FL; the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in VT; and the Housatonic Community College in CT. Currently, her Egret sculpture is at Canal Green in Westport, CT.
The artist is represented at galleries in America and Europe. Bloch’s works are in the permanent collections of The CHIMEI Museum, Tainan, Taiwan; Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, SC; Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Mattatuck Museum of Art, Waterbury, CT; B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum, Washington, DC; Hudson Heritage Farm, Ganges, MI; Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, MD; Montefiore Hospital, NY and numerous collections in across America, and globally in Asia and Europe. Bloch has received numerous awards, including the Benjamin West Clinedinst medal presented by the Artists’ Fellowship, Inc, in 2018, as well as from the National Arts Club, Salmagundi Club & Museum, and the National Association of Women Artists. She is President ex-officio of the Artists’ Fellowship, Inc. a 501(c)3 foundation that assists professional fine artists and their families in the event of emergency, disability, or bereavement.
www.BabetteBloch.com; e-mail bbsculpt@gmail.com 203-938-8565
