NEWPORT, R.I. – “2 Sculptors,” an exhibition featuring the work of William Martin and Krisjohn Horvat, is open to the public through Oct. 3 at Salve Regina’s Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery.
The Gallery is located in the Antone Academic Center, corner of Lawrence and Leroy avenues. It is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m.
Both Horvat and Martin create sculptures with references to architectural forms and motifs. In Horvat's case, sculptures reference architecture, which makes archetypes forms. Such things as gravity and cantilever play key roles in the staging of his work.
Martin's strategy comes from a fascination with machines and fasteners. His wooden and metal forms create a sense of fragment or contrived references - an aesthetic he "manufactures," being mindful of formal issues.
“Generally speaking, I start with an idea and then find the materials that work the best,” Horvat says. “Bill tends to start with the material/process and let it define the forms more than I do. The forms that we refer to are different. For me, it’s architecture and jet fighters. For him, it’s pre-digital machinery.”
The visual and formal experience is still of prime importance and is what both artists want the viewer to respond to the most.
“The sculptures are unusual combinations of technology and machinery but the scale and materials are controlled to give the viewer a sense of believability, inviting and defying them to imagine the machine in use,” Martin says.
"The metaphoric connections invite the viewer’s projections and inspire them to invent an internal fantastic narrative they have not previously known.”