BRIAN CAVANAUGH
Next Zip Show: August 13 - 29, 2010
Email: brianleecavanaugh@yahoo.com
Website: www.bcavanaughartwork.com
Brian Cavanaugh
Artist Statement:
Bio:
Artist Intent
“My art background began in early childhood. I have always tried to retain that sense of discovery.”
I reuse and juxtapose discarded objects and utilitarian materials into mixed media constructions. The previous functions or purposes are woven and blended until a new sculpture remains.
These remains reveal much about the process of making, but leave the underlying reasons for selection and combination of materials up to the endless interpretations of the viewer. Individual components or parts of sculptures retain the original “signifier” meaning as well as metaphor or multiple meanings. The new function is one of contemplation about previous invention and present non-function. "If it still functions, it isn’t art yet.
The modern world discards and wastes faster than all the “found object artists” of the world could ever recycle in their combined lifetimes. Merely using old stuff in art as an environmental statement is too easy an answer for me. The sum of those parts has to achieve more than a compilation of materials. The underlying meanings of those objects must cooperate or contradict to a degree that surpasses the common denominator. The juxtaposition has to result in a construction not of things, but a construction of meanings.
The resulting intellectual discourse within the piece is only completed through public display, where the cultural conversation can continue in the minds of others. Only then can a sculptural object transform artifact to art.
The work walks a fine line between art and artifact. The found object, or alley artifact usually utilitarian, mass produced, and eventually discarded carries all the implications of our culture. The objects found reveal excessive waste, the fleeting tastes and lifestyle of the previous user, reflecting cultural truths often ugly on the surface. Beneath the surface, and in a new context, the stories or non specific meanings are explored
Inspired by natural and urban setting, the resulting sculptures juxtapose discarded artifacts w/nature themes revealing meaningful new sculptural objects.
About the Artist
Brian Cavanaugh has a BFA 1984 from Columbus College of Art & Design and MFA1988 in studio arts from The University of Illinois at Chicago. He recently relocated to Denver CO, where he set up studio.
His art career spans over two decades and has taken many turns, including illustration, painting and interior exhibition design for zoos and aquariums.
Post graduate school, he took a position of preparator at the Field Museum of Natural History. He installed priceless artifacts and recreated life sized and scale model replicas of nature. This lead to further career advancement as fabrication manager, and exhibition designer at the John G. Shedd Aquarium, and the Academy of Science’s Nature Museum. Inspired by the museum setting, the artist always continued to make and show his artwork.
Artists:
Zoa Ace | Pat Cronin | Danyl Cook | Mark Friday | Kate McGuinness | Jennifer Melton
Leo Franco | Michael Keene | Alix Evendorff | Louis Recchia | Katie Hoffman
Valerie Savarie | Jean Smith | Barbara O’Connell | Kathy Knaus | Brian Cavanaugh