Jerry Wingren: “Swedish American Sculptor”
Nordic Heritage Museum, Seattle, WA Sept 18-Nov 10
Jerry Wingren: “Little Houses”
Lisa Harris Gallery, Seattle, WA Oct 3-Nov 3
|
Jerry Wingren, Tuscany Tower, Virginia black soapstone [Nordic Heritage Museum, Seattle, WA, Sept 18-Nov 10]
|
Jerry Wingren is an artist to be celebrated in Seattle this month with two simultaneous exhibitions of his sculptures, ranging from monumental outdoor pieces to small intimate carvings.
The Lisa Harris Gallery will feature Wingren’s Little Houses series. Each abstract piece of Virginia black soapstone symbolizes a different conception of home, both architecturally and poetically. With titles such as Cathedra or Tuscany Tower these sculptures allude to a sense of grandeur as they seem to be mockettes for something larger. Referencing the home, their poetry is in the ability to move between the personal and the public, (as in the space they inhabit.)
The work featured at the Nordic Heritage Museum is larger in scale with a grand presence. Wingren’s latest series titled Standing Stones are all carved of Swedish black granite. His medium of choice is intentional as this rare granite is from the same region that Wingren’s ancestors were from. These pieces are heavy with some surfaces left in the rough.
His influences range from his Swedish ancestry to the Native American totems of Ketchikan, Alaska where the artist was born. Later interests in origami, Zen and other Eastern aesthetics, provide an austere sense of beauty.
