This experience inspires viewers to recognize awareness of their shared space as they move among the monumental sculpture and light-filled galleries.
Although their work is very different, each artist creates objects that remind viewers of the extraordinary possibilities intrinsic in common, often industrial, materials. Both are an undeniable response to these artists’ lives in the American west.
Charles’s large-scale sculptures impose a poetic elegance on industrial steel and glass. Although technological in their foundations and architectural in their construction, these sculptures are the artist’s response to the expansive space of the west. Charles’s sculpture, which manifest both indoors and outdoors, is meant to call attention to the individual’s place within the broad vistas of the west. In this sense, his works reflect not the romance of an unsettled land, but vast horizons broken by vertical industrial lines and forms. As these sculptures relate to the organic world, Charles hopes that they “create a definition of the nature of our times” by suggesting places of convergence and connection.
If the presence of Charles’s sculpture is predominantly physical, then Collin’s is ephemeral. If the west is defined by the physicality of the landscape, then it also resounds with the transitory nature of light. If Charles’s sculptures convey the weight of monumental structure, then Collin’s suggest the pure emotive capacity of light and color. In Collin’s work, controlled light transforms interior spaces into stunning atmospheric experiences. Collin states that his goal is to “push the viewer beyond everyday limits of perception. I achieve this by using fluorescent and light emitting diodes with the inclusion of colored gel. Controlling these combined elements helps capture the vivid demonstrations of light, space, color, and dimension.”
Together, Charles and Collin’s works will occupy the Fine Arts Center’s signature El Pomar Gallery and will create an experience that connects disparate spaces and, by extension, inspires viewers to recognize awareness of their shared space as they move among the monumental sculpture and light-filled galleries. Each artist has conceived large scale, site-specific installations for the galleries and will also exhibit a selection of their earlier work.