Playful Art
Brad Howe's Pop-Inspired Sculptures Take Unpredicted
Direction
Story by Debra Kronowitz | Photos courtesy of Brad Howe Studio
Los Angeles artist Brad Howe seeks to
build on the tradition of geometric abstraction to sustain it as a
living, viable discourse. His pop-inspired, playful and humorous
mobiles, wall hangings, furniture and free-standing sculptures combine
the dynamic planar relationships and solid coloration associated with
post-cubist modernism. Their playful exuberance, however, owes more to
the artistic climates of 21st-century Los Angeles and São Paulo, where
Howe began his artistic career.
“To commit yourself to the creation of art feels at times like building
a small fire on a solitary mountainside in the dark of the night,” Howe
said. “In the beginning, you are focused on getting that fire started
and your personal comfort from its warmth. What you cannot foresee is
who or what will come out of the dark to sit with you. I have been very
fortunate, as those who have come to sit with me and share my art have
brought an abundance of gifts, and for their presence I have felt
perpetually encouraged to keep the fire burning.” |
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As a student of international
relations at Stanford University, Howe attended the
University of São Paulo to specialize in Brazilian affairs.
His interest in art and architecture peaked in Brazil, with
his first exhibitions taking place in São Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro. Since then, the sculptor has met with overwhelming
success, exhibiting his work in more than 16 countries,
including the United States, Japan, Mexico and Germany.
His art has been placed in collections in 32 countries,
including most recently, an 80-foot mobile for the Georgia
International Convention Center, an 18-foot stainless-steel
sculpture for a client in Biberach, Germany, and work for
the City of Los Angeles and MIT. He also maintains a
schedule of international exhibitions, most recently in
France and Germany. Howe works with stainless-steel, steel
and aluminum, which allows his work to take unpredictable
directions. “My sculptures examine vitality and celebrate
beauty,” Howe explained. “Their structures are composed with
actual or implied kinetic properties aimed at exposing
energized moments between the forces of attraction and
repulsion, between gravity and weightlessness, between
balance and imbalance, between linear and curvilinear,
between connection and disconnection, and between strain and
serenity. They aim to capture the vigor of life and radiate
with unabashed potentiality. These are the issues that
stimulate me as a person and as an artist, and that are
discussed over and over with those who sit with me at my
fire and with those at whose fire I find myself sitting.”
From Oct. 11 through Nov. 7, Adamar Fine Arts will present
California Dreamy: Brad Howe
and Michael Moon. The show features Howe’s
installations and Moon’s large abstract paintings. The
opening reception is slated for Oct. 11, from 6–9 pm. The
gallery is located at 4141 NE 2nd Ave., Suite 107.
Adamar Fine Arts, Miami Design District, 305.576.1355,
www.adamarfinearts.com |
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