Sculptor James Surls is next USU Visiting Artist Program Guest

Sculptor James Surls is a guest at Utah State University as part of the department of art’s Visiting Artist Program Feb. 4-6.

He presents a public lecture Monday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. in the Eccles Conference Center, room 216. The artist will show images and speak about his artwork.

 

In addition to his public lecture, Surls will present a workshop in the department of art’s sculpture area, SL 101, in the Fine Arts Visual wing of the Chase Fine Arts Center (approximately 1200 E. 700 North, Logan). The workshop is Tuesday, Feb. 5, and runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The artist will also meet with advanced sculpture students to discuss their artwork.

 

All events are free and open to the public.

 

Surls earned his master’s of fine art at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and during his career he has received numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1979. In 1991 he was named Texas Artist of the Year and received a “Living Legend Award” from the Dallas Contemporary Art Center in 1993. Surls now lives in Carbondale, Colo.

 

His work has appeared in many museum and gallery exhibitions, including “Drawings & Sculptures”(2004), Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, Texas; “Cranbrook Art Museum: 100 Treasures” (2004), Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; “Inside and Out – Contemporary Sculpture” (2001), Bass Art Museum, Miami, Fla.; “Alexander Calder and James Surls,” Pillsbury and Peters Fine Art, Dallas, Texas; “Contemporary American Sculpture” (2000), Monte Carlo International Sculpture Exhibition; “Ideas and Objects: Selected Drawings and Sculptures from the Permanent Collection” (1994), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y.; “The Boat Show: Fantastic Vessels, Fictional Voyages” (1994), Renwich
Gallery, The Smithsonian, Washington D.C.; “Biennial Exhibition” (1995), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y., and many more.

 

Additional images of Surls’s work and a collection of his writing about previous exhibits, as well as selected poetry, is available at his Web site.

 

Other guests in this year’s Visiting Artist Program include printmaker Karen Kunc, Feb. 19-21, and potter Mark Hewitt, March 24-27.

 

According to program director Marilyn Krannich, Visiting Artist guests are selected for their national and international reputations, as well as varied backgrounds and diverse media. The program organizes visits by the nationally known artists, art critics/writers and art historians. Lectures, workshops, group discussions and possible exhibitions by the artists are free and open to the public. The series is a part of activities organized under the umbrella of the Caine School of the Arts in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

 

The Visiting Artist Program is supported by a grant from the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation. The Utah Arts Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Utah Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, provides additional funding.

 

For more information about the Visiting Artist Program at USU, contact program director Marilyn Krannich, 435-797-7373.

 

 

Contact: Marilyn Krannich (435) 797-7373, marilyn.krannich@usu.edu