Steven Siegel

Landscape to Life: An Artist’s View

Friday, October 23, 2009
Lecture Hall 2, 4:00 PM

Abstract

This is a slide seminar that lightly traces a 30 year span of an individual artist’s work and the influences that formed it. Those include landscape, life, the evolution of craft, and the creative process in general. The large, sited works for which Siegel is known, as well as his studio work will be discussed. In particular, the series, Wonderful Life, whose title is shared with the book by Stephen Jay Gould, will be highlighted. The evolution of an art that takes evolution as its cue, and aesthetics as its bedrock, is the subject of this lecture.

Biography

Steven Siegel has been creating sculptures that explore cycles of construction and decomposition in the landscape for the past twenty years. He has recent installations in Korea, Germany, Italy, and Canada, as well as throughout the United States. In addition, an extensive studio practice since 1978 has led to numerous exhibitions, including the current traveling exhibition, Wonderful Life. A recipient of numerous awards, including National Endowment for the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts grants, Siegel lectures and teaches worldwide. He holds a BA from Hampshire College and an MFA from Pratt Institute.

Readings

• Wandering Through Time: The Sculpture of Steven Siegel: Review from Sculpture, October 2003
• It’s a Wonderful Life: Catalog essay by John Perreault
• The Evolution of Life on the Earth: 1994 Scientific American article by Stephen Jay Gould