Loretta Howard Gallery is pleased to present Joel Perlman: The Color of Metal on view from May 2nd-June 1st, 2019.
Joel Perlman’s newest body of work featured this exhibition is one that further explores casting various types of metal: bronze, stainless steel, and copper. Stretching back to the early 1990s, his work shows visual kinship to machines. Sculptures that are comprised of tooth marked circular forms, which overlap and coil, draw similarities to that of a gear. Often taking inspiration from motorcycles, which have always been a passion, Perlman’s sculpture evokes a sense of motion and speed. Robert S. Mattison writes in the exhibition catalogue:
Their overlapping annular spirals, broken by ragged triangular shapes, suggest explosive energy, yet that energy is simultaneously controlled within tightly organized abstract compositions.
Joel Perlman was born in New York City where he continues to live and work. He also maintains a studio and residence in Watermill, New York. He began welding at Cornell University (BFA 1965) and then at the Central School of Art and Design, London, and the University of California, Berkeley (MA 1967). From 1970-1992 he had numerous exhibitions at the seminal Andre Emmerich Gallery in New York. Perlman has been a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts grant, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award. His work is included in important public and private collections including the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, the Los Angeles County Museum, California, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The artist is renowned for his public and privately commissioned site-specific works. They include the The Scalpel, 52 Lime Street, London, ABN Amro Bank Building, Chicago, IBM Corporation, Thornwood, New York, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York, the 1980 Winter Olympics, Lake Placid, and the Ursukushi-Ga-Hara Open Air Museum, Japan.