Michael "Mike" Kelley

 

 Michael "Mike" Kelley (1954 - 2012) was an American artist. His work involved found objects, textile banners, drawings, assemblage, collage, performance and video. He often worked collaboratively and had produced projects with artists Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler and John Miller. Writing in The New York Times, in 2012, Holland Cotter described the artist as "one of the most influential American artists of the past quarter century and a pungent commentator on American class, popular culture and youthful rebellion
Kelley gained recognition in the 1980s for his work with children's soft toys and other found materials. With these materials, he examined popular culture, memories and fragmented narratives.
Children's toys also function in Kelley's work as a satirical metaphor. Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites (1991–99) consists of suspended balls created from discarded, brightly coloured toys. By transforming children's toys into serious sculpture, Kelley visualised a darker side to the American dream's endorsement of excessive consumption and reckless luxury collecting, and intermingled the 'low' and the 'high' of American culture. He also deodorised his suspended sculptures, mocking America's selective amnesia of unpleasant realities.

 

Beverly Pepper -Contemporary Sculpture

 

 Beverly Pepper (1922 - 2020) - American sculptor known for her monumental works, site specific and land art. She remains independent from any particular art movement.
All of Pepper's sculptures from the beginning of her sculptural career were displayed outdoors. Eventually, she began her experiments using earth to contain a sculpture. "In the seventies I developed the concept of "Earthbound Sculptures", that is sculptures seemingly born in or rising up from the earth."Becoming more involved with her native New York in the 1970s, her progressive ideas became realized in commissions such as her seminal work Amphisculpture (1974-76). Furthering her vocabulary in steel, throughout this time period she used Cor-ten steel. While working at a U.S. steel factory in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, she was given Cor-ten steel. Relishing in the exposed rusted surfaces of Cor-ten, she made pieces like Dallas Land Canal (1971-75). She was, in fact, one of the first artists, if not the first, to incorporate Cor-Ten steel into sculpture.Beginning in the 1970s, and to the present day, she has lived a bi-continental life traveling between Europe and the United States. Wikipedia

 

Igael Tumarkin

Igael Tumarkin ( 1933 – 2021) was an Israeli painter and sculptor

"Renowned Israeli artist Igael Tumarkin is internationally recognized for his public sculptures, paintings, and prints, as well as his divisive political views. A winner of the Israel Prize, Tumarkin was widely known for his anti-war politics, disdain for religion, and protest against West Bank settlements. His most famous sculpture, Monument to the Holocaust and Revival (1975), located in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, has been an integral site of political speech, including by performance artist Ariel Bronz. Born in Germany, Tumarkin immigrated to Israel as a child. As a young artist, he studied under sculptor Rudolf Lehmann and worked at Bertolt Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble. His prints and paintings combine aspects of Abstract Expressionism, Dada, and Pop art. Tumarkin represented Israel at the Venice, São Paulo, and Tokyo biennials. The Tel Aviv Museum of Art staged a major retrospective in 1992."(.artsy.net)Tumarkin was also an art theoretician and stage designer. In the 1950s, Tumarkin worked in East Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris. Upon his return to Israel in 1961, he became a driving force behind the break from the charismatic monopoly of lyric abstraction there. Tumarkin created assemblages of found objects, generally with violent expressionist undertones and decidedly unlyrical color. His determination to "be different" influenced his younger Israeli colleagues. The furor generated around Tumarkin's works, such as the old pair of trousers stuck to one of his pictures, intensified the mystique surrounding him.