Sculpture by Jared Abner and Steven Muller. 

At Boston's HallSpace

By: HallSpace - Sep 28, 2021

 

Sculpture by Jared Abner and Steven Muller
HallSpace
950 Dorchester Ave
Boston, MA 02125
Through October 23
Friday + Saturday 12-5pm
By Appointment
Monday - Thursday

Steven Muller is working with hand split firewood in a body of work he refers to as line drawings. Many of his abstract reliefs made from split firewood depict chairs in different states of deconstruction, while others reflect his non-objective drawings. Muller writes on how he stumbled upon the idea of using split firewood, "The block of wood I was using to prevent the stake I was trying to drive into the ground from getting mangled, broke up into all these neat little pieces, lines. This was the beginning of my line drawings. Materials."

Jared Abner is a recent graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology furniture program with a BFA in sculpture. Working with bass wood, oak, cherry, and anything else he get his hands on he is finding ways to balance abstract forms. Abner contrasts highly finished wood surfaces with rougher hand carved areas. Abner writes, "When I was six, I started spending time in the basement. On top of an old workbench, there was a rusty hammer, and behind it was a carpenter’s hand saw hanging from pegboard. As soon as I was tall enough to reach them, I started using the saw to cut through whatever scrap wood I could find lying around and using the hammer to nail them together."

In "Wood Play" both artists are having fun with the materials and the forms. The work in this exhibition evokes that joy. Muller's assembled sculptures play with sticks/lines, broken, abrupt, and jagged. They are simple intelligent collages, with a touch of wry humor. Abner discovers forms by following the shapes and grain of the wood he is carving. The work is fresh, like new growth that is finding the sun for the first time.  Abner and Muller are captivated by the materials they use, and share the pleasure they have making the work. 

Steven Muller
Steven Muller is an established Boston-based artist who also works from his studio in New Hampshire. He has shown extensively throughout New England and in New York City. He has been awarded a National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) regional grant through the Mass Cultural Council. His work is in many private collections. Additionally, his work is in the collection of the Leslie Lohman Museum of Lesbian and Gay Art in New York City.

Jared Abner
Jared Abner is a 2021 graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology’s furniture design program where he earned a BFA in Sculpture. While at  RIT, Jared was introduced to the imaginative furniture and sculpture of his professor, Andy Buck. Buck’s work inspired Jared to play and explore the medium of wood and the contingencies of his tools. Jared continues this exploration in his Boston-based studio. 

Image
Exhibition View, HallSpace, 2021

Gallery Hours
Friday + Saturday 12-5pm
By Appointment
Monday - Thursday