Steel Sculpture – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Full Circles

Posted by Cindy on March 4, 2019

Mar 042019

Visitation Branch Library
201 Leland Avenue

Full Circles by Ilana Spector and Mark Grieve – 2011

This piece consists of interlocking steel hoops embellished with recycled bicycle gears and, according to Grieve, is intended to evoke a “universe of possibilities.”

Mark Grieve (1965-) is a contemporary American artist. He studied painting and drawing at the San Francisco Art Institute and the College of Marin and apprenticed in Japanese ceramics in the Hamada lineage. He practices in a variety of media including found objects and large metal sculpture as well as site-specific installations, performance, and public art.

Ilana Spector has a background in civics and law and brings a multidisciplinary approach to creating public artwork. She studied government and diplomacy, attending the London School of Economics and graduated from Georgetown University before attending UCLA School of Law. Ms. Spector joined Mr. Grieve in 2006 to complete an award-winning public sculpture. She studied drawing and painting at the College of Marin.

This piece was commissioned by the San Francisco Art Commission for $75,000.

Archipelago

Posted by Cindy on August 11, 2017

Aug 112017

San Francisco General Hospital
1001 Potrero Avenue
Potrero Hill

Titled Archipelago this piece is based on the concept of a river as a metaphor for life. It was created by Anna Valentina Murch and sits in the plaza connecting the old and new buildings of the hospital complex. An important feature of the installation is a 6’-tall oval-shaped stainless steel banded sculpture, which is internally illuminated at night to serve as a symbolic beacon. Additionally, a series of basket-like, stainless steel banded sculptural seating elements surround planters and companion carved granite benches.

Murch was born in Scotland and grew up in London, where she earned degrees from the University of Leicester, the Royal College of Art and the Architectural Association. Murch had an interest in art installations, sculptures, and ecological design. She often collaborated with her husband Douglas Hollis, who is an environmental artist.

Murch came to the Bay Area in the 1970s and taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and UC Berkeley She began teaching at Mills College as a professor of studio art at Mills college in 1991, she passed away in 2014.

This installation was purchased by the San Francisco Arts Commission for $826,800.

Huru by di Suvero

Posted by Cindy on July 19, 2013

Jul 192013

Crissy Field

Huru 1984-1985 Steel

“Huru”, at 55 feet, is the tallest sculpture in the exhibit. A simple tripod base supports a six-ton upper section made of two long pointing pieces, like open scissors that move in the wind. Some read them as welcoming arms; to me they looked like futuristic machine guns, or at other times a gladiators helmet.

This is my favorite, which is why I have left it for last. I could not quite put my finger on why it was my favorite, and oddly, as I have been writing about all the others, I’m not so sure why this stole my heart above and beyond any number of the others. At the time, my photography partner mentioned that it was the only piece that sat all by itself and for that reason could be appreciated the way I had been lamenting that large sculpture should be appreciated, which may very well be why it was my favorite.

Old Buddy #6 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2013

Jul 172013

Crissy Field

Old Buddy (For Rosko) 1993-1995

“Old Buddy (For Rosko)” (1993-95), a tribute to the artist’s dog, could be read as an abstract animal. A rear upright section on two legs (which might have a tail) is joined to a front upright section on three legs (which might have a circular face and upward-pointing ears) by a straight 50-foot-long silver-painted spine. But it’s far more than a sentimental gesture. The precisionist rear section and the long connecting beam are painted silver; the tripod, circles and “ears” of the front section are left rust-brown. And one can admire it—especially if viewed from either end—as a masterly complex of steel beams in perspective, framing the sky. (from the NY Times)

Mother Peace #5 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 16, 2013

Jul 162013

Crissy Field

Mother Peace – 42 feet tall, painted Steel 1969-1970

Mother Peace was originally installed near an entrance to the Alameda County courthouse in Oakland, but a judge, so offended by the peace sign that di Suvero had painted on one of the I-beams, transformed himself into an art judge and insisted on its removal. The work is now installed at Storm King Art Center.

Di Suvero himself moved to Europe in 1970 to protest against the war in Vietnam, returning to the United States in 1974.

Mother Peace is built around one 42-foot vertical beam (a V-shaped horizontal piece hangs from and swings about the top), the two lower horizontals (one moving), and two long diagonal props.

Figulo #4 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 15, 2013

Jul 152013

Crissy Field

Figulo (2005-11) 47′ × 55′ painted steel, steel buoys – collection of the artist

From the Brooklyn Rail when this piece was exhibited at Governor’s Island: From afar, it looks to be a drafting compass fit for the gods. Its red extension beams ignite in the afternoon sunlight. At close range, the dimensions shift perceptually. The sculpture’s backbone extends outward as joints become gracefully visible, angles more acute. The sky seems closer than ever, as meandering clouds seem to collapse into the slats between the beams.

Magma by Mark di Suvero #2 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 12, 2013

Jul 122013

Crissy Field

“Magma” (2008-12), steel sculpture by Mark di Suvero, measures 25 feet tall by 48 feet wide. Leant by the artist, this piece is on public view for the first time. Magma appears as a giant sawhorse in which a 48-foot I-beam is supported between two of the artist’s traditional, uneven tripods. It is distinguished by a big pair of cut circles (or C’s, or G’s) that can slide along the horizontal beam, matched by a pair of similar rings that wrap around the joint at one of the ends.

Mark di Suvero, has other pieces permanently around San Francisco.

di Suvero was born in Shanghai, China, in 1933. He immigrated to the United States in 1941 and received a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. Di Suvero began showing his sculpture in the late 1950’s and is one of the most important American artists to emerge from the Abstract Expressionist era. A pioneer in the use of steel, di Suvero is without peer in the exhibition of public sculpture worldwide.

Solar Plumes on a Painted Steel Fence

Posted by Cindy on March 29, 2013

Mar 292013

Sunnyside Playground
200 Melrose
Twin Peaks

These painted steel panels were commissioned in 2008 for $23,600 by the San Francisco Art Commission to Deborah Kennedy.

According to Kennedy’s website the curvilinear patterns cut into water-jet cut stainless steel were abstracted from patterns found in NASA’s TRACE close-up satellite photos of the solar surface. These photos show enormous plumes of plasma, electrified gases that surge up from the surface of the sun. These plumes move at tremendous speeds and form coronal loops that stand hundreds of thousands of miles off the surface of the sun.

This public artwork seeks to heighten awareness of the new understanding of the sun, and to encourage greater consideration of solar energy as a key to solving our global climate crisis.

Deborah Kennedy’s artwork consists of conceptually-based installations and objects in galleries, museums and public spaces. Her work begin with questions, such as: What new ways of thinking can help us solve our environmental problems? Can we reform our technological systems so they operate in a bio-compatible manner? How is exposure to toxic chemicals affecting the health of human and animal populations? Questions, such as these, focusing on social and environmental dilemmas are the starting point of her work.

These questions propel her investigations. Today, the majority of her research is web-based, where she tracks rapidly advancing scientific research on endocrine disruptors, the amphibian decline and other areas of concern. This research informs her choice of images, materials, and methods. Therefore, her creative process and artwork are characterized by an on-going state of inquiry, extensive research, and a balance between concept and form.

Kennedy says, “I want to work at the growing edge, where we as a global community are struggling to create new visions that will help solve our environmental problems. My hope is that these new perceptions will help us change how we think about ourselves and our role in the world. Then, perhaps, we can begin to change our behaviors as individuals and larger communities.”

Liberty Ship at Islais Creek

Posted by Cindy on December 19, 2012

Dec 192012

SFMTA Islais Motor Coach Facility
Sitting on Islais Creek in the new Shoreline Park
Indiana Street and Ceasar Chavez
Bayview

This 340′ Long Steel Sculpture is an abstract representation of the old Liberty Ships that were built in the Shipyards of this neighborhood.

The sculpture is by Nobuho Nagasawa a New York based artist. Nobuho had this to say on ArtNet

My work ranges from site-specific projects to installations and public art. I create an interactive space that is informed by the actual place — its history, people and spatial narrative. This approach requires detective-like investigation and quasi-archeological research, exploring sociological and psychological aspects of each site. Immediate physical and social context influences the form, content, and choice of materials and media.

I see my artist’s identity as inevitably “hybrid” – in my case, part sculptor, journalist, poet, architect, and urban designer. Materials and methodology follow upon the necessary diversity of evolving concepts as a project reveals its conditions. I see this process as an excavation of meanings – cultural, geopolitical, social, personal – that lie hidden within the materials themselves. By revealing personal memories, collective histories, unacknowledged myths, and contradictory issues, I try to open up key social and personal reserves that can galvanize public interaction. Art, after all, has the power to deconstruct the blockages of social energy and serve as a catalyst to new vision and public self-discovery. My goal is to create artwork that provokes and revives a site and wakes people up to the poetry of place.

I am intrigued by the sense of scale, both human and civic, and how relatively small change can enhance private experience within the public setting. A truly livable space should stand the test of time. It spurs social communication and inspires reconstruction. When history is brought to the surface through public art, it can serve as source for the renewal of cultural identity and the evolution of social values.

My goal is to create works that attract people to possibility where and as they live. The development and realization of art in public is a dialogue with a place and its time – land and substance, its past, its people, the future they create – made new, immediate, and somehow timeless.

Based in New York City since 2001, Nobuho Nagasawa was born in Tokyo, and raised in Europe and Japan, and received her MFA at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. She came to the United States as a visiting scholar through the invitation of California Institute of the Arts in 1986, where she studied visual art, critical theory and music.

This piece was commissioned by the SFAC for $750,000 in the 2008-2009 budget year.

A great way to hide unsightly utilities

Posted by Cindy on October 21, 2012

Oct 212012

San Francisco State University
Lakeside

Flaura by Kevin La

This student work is an enclosure for a utility box.The steel constructed sculpture offers a design that fits naturally in the surrounding environment.

It is located between Humanities and University Housing buildings.

Cities around the world are starting to use utility boxes such as these for public art projects, it would be nice to see more in the city of San Francisco.

Richard Mayer at Hastings Law School

Posted by Cindy on September 30, 2012

Sep 302012

Civic Center

Hastings Law School

200 McAllister at Hyde

I would like to extend a big thank you to Suzanne Parks, the Volunteer Art Curator at Hastings Law School for this information.

This sculpture is titled “Gary Diptych #1” and is by San Francisco Bay area artist Richard Mayer. He loaned Hastings the sculpture back in the early 1980’s and then gave it to them in 2008.

In his statement, the artist said: With its affirmation and ambiguity, “Gary Diptych #1 is intended as a metaphor for our times.

Mayer sat on the board of the SFAC when Arneson was chosen to make the, at the time, highly controversial sculpture for a memorial to slain mayor George Moscone