Dear Visitor,
I confess to having written this myself, but out of modesty I will express it in the third person:
Howard Kalish has been making art seriously, as he recalls, since the age of six. Before that he studied by intensely watching and attempting to emulate his older brother Lionel, who is also an artist. Subsequent studies included the High School of Music & Art (a specialized public school in New York City), Cooper Union and the New York Studio School.
He began as a painter, though he always also made sculpture, and in his very early twenties began to focus primarily on sculpture. He began as a figurative sculptor, his work gradually evolved over the years into abstract sculpture, and then evolved again into the figurative work he makes now.
He was engaged in making public art for over twenty years, in addition to continuing to have numerous exhibitions in museums and art galleries. His approach to public art projects was to place his work in a context, visually with its surroundings and in spirit with the community. His public sculptures are installed in Baton Rouge, LA, Florida International University in Miami, FL, the city of Palm Desert, CA, the city of Rockville, MD, the Jupiter campus of Florida Atlantic University, Indiana State University in Terre Haute, IN, among other places.
The esthetic basis of his abstract and public work was growth and structure, the various ways forms are put together and become themselves, in nature and in the way the mind perceives it. The "look" of the finished piece was very much determined, just as it is in nature, by how it came into being and grew. Just as in nature, the most important factor in determining what it will become is the overriding structural principle. He explored and expressed in visual terms connections, many parts making a whole, though the whole, while complete, always conveyed a sense of further possibilities.
He did not abandon this approach in the transition to his current figurative work. About that work, he says:
“In my opinion a sculpture is an embodiment in sculptural form of a constellation of characteristics, emotions, associations and influences meant to present something beyond "representation" (re-presentation) to the viewer. I think this is true whether the sculpture is figurative or abstract. A good sculpture is a heightened clear embodiment, perhaps even an archetype, which conveys something meaningful to the viewer beyond that which may be articulated in words (if that were possible words would be a much more economical means). Each of my sculptures is trying to embody a different constellation of meaning centered around a particular deep aspect of our life.”
Howard Kalish has taught sculpture at the National Academy, New York University and the Nassau County Museum, among other places. He has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant. His work has been written about in many publications, including the NY Times, Art in America and Artforum. He is an academician member of the National Academy, and the Sculptors Guild, where he served on the Executive Board.