BREAKTHROUGH WORK - NEW SOLO SHOW -

WHAT I NEED - HOW YOU CAN GET IN ON THE ACTION

As Grace Jones once sang, “I’ve done it again!” 

This January 16th the TinyAth Gallery will host a solo show featuring my new series 'Ode to a Watering Hole.’ I’m incredibly excited about this show because the work presented is the result of my latest innovation, ephemeral copper wire ‘drawings’ preserved between sheets of glass. To produce the full body of work needed for this show I must raise $7,700. ($4,100 as of 11.02) To do so, I’ve decided to pre-sell works that will appear in the show. Simply put, if you purchase one of these pieces, you will not only help to make this show a reality, you will see your piece on the wall of the TinyAth Gallery. And you’ll be able to share the pleasure of sharing the experience with your fellow patrons, and take the piece home when the show is done. 

The Need

I plan to create twenty works for the TinyAth show. To do this, I need to raise $7,700 ($4,100 as of 11.02) to cover the material costs, the framing, the cost of photographic documentation, and my out of pocket expenses as I create the work. 

Accessible Work for Regular Folks

As many of you know, over the last ten years my steel wire portraits have gotten epic in scale. Many of the folks following my career have lamented that they wish they had bought a piece of mine when my career was still emerging. That’s because the cost of creating these larger, more complex pieces is enormous, and simply covering the cost of production when making a sale puts them outside of what most people can afford. This newer, small work, more gestural than conceptual in nature, and the innovation that makes it possible, represents a true full circle back to my roots, permitting me to create novel work at a scale that people can take home and proudly display at about the same prices as work I made 20 years ago. 

The Presale

Each of these new glass works will be framed and ready to hang. I’ve organized three different ways that you can get in on the pre-sale of my work. This will give you the greatest opportunity to help bring the show to fruition and to acquire the piece that excites you most.

1. First Choice (all sold) - I’ve worked out with the gallery a very sweet first choice offer for five visionary folks. For $700 paid in advance, you will have the opportunity to visit my studio and see the work for the show as it is being completed, and will have the opportunity to choose the one that speaks to you most. For each of the five, this will be first come first serve. Once one of you selects a piece, it will no longer be available. So if you see something in progress that you love, do claim it first.

2. VIP Access - You’d love to buy a piece but $700 is a lot to do in one bite. What if you could do it by making two contributions between now and the show? That’s why the gallery and I developed a VIP program you can be a part of. For an initial payment of $420, and a second payment of $280 made prior to January 11th, you will receive an invitation to the VIP preshowing of the works, where you can select your favorite work from those still available (in person or via an online slideshow).

3. Super Patron - Perhaps you want to go big and support the show in a very personal way. Perhaps you want to be a Super Patron. If so, for $2,500 I will render your portrait or a portrait of a loved one in wire between glass. 

To make a presale purchase via PayPal just click the donate button bellow, or got to Paypal direct and use njsartstudio@gmail.com

If you prefer to make your acquisition via another format please email me at njsartstudio@gmail.com

Lending a Hand

You love the idea, want to support the work and can’t wait to come to the opening of the show but you can’t afford to spend $700, or perhaps your home is so stuffed with the work you’ve bought from local artists that you can’t bring home one more thing. If that’s the case, please consider making a donation to the cause. A donation of any amount goes a long way to making this truly a spectacular show. If you wish, your donation will be publicly acknowledged in a list of donors at the opening. 

To donate via PayPal just click the donate button bellow, or got to Paypal direct and use njsartstudio@gmail.com

If you prefer to make your donation via another format please email me at njsartstudio@gmail.com

Want to Know More? Keep Reading.

About the Work

Wire as a sculptural medium is new to the canon; it resides at the frontier of our creative consciousness. With my series of large-scale wire sculptures, I developed a fundamentally new approach to rendering portraits in wire. The results of this work have garnered significant public attention. I’ve discussed the process of making it in print, radio, and television interviews, and the work has been recognized in several awards competitions and with an upcoming show at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art in April 2025. Now, with the creative encouragement of a dear friend and glass artist Christie Moody, I’ve innovated again, this time with copper and glass.  

Copper and glass have the same expansion rate which allows one to melt glass around copper without the glass cracking. After a few experiments, Christie and I realized that I could use hair thin copper wires to create ephemeral ‘wire drawings’ protected between sheets of fused glass. 

This innovation allowed me to tap deep into my well of inspiration cultivated over two decades and brought with it an explosive burst of creativity. As I began to create work with this novel method, a distinct theme quickly emerged -  Athens’ local watering holes! I found myself putting into art what I have always found fascinating - how the mood of a bar shifts from hour to hour. So I started creating a series of ‘portraits of a moment,’ naming each work by the day of the week and the hour of the day. So Friday 5:30 is all about happy hour, large groups of people all winding down from a long week, whereas Friday 10:45 is about dates and intimate conversations over ‘one more round’ 

As I delved deeper. I began to remember the lovingly contentious debates about composition with my fellow German Expressionists inspired artist Art Rosenbaum. Both of us were loved of Max Beckmann’s work and Athens’ watering holes. Accordingly, I decided to build  the show around a central image of a portrait of my dear departed friend Art. 

The show at the TinyAth gallery will be my first solo show in Athens in over eight years! What better way to celebrate this new innovation, honor the passing of a beloved friend and the town that has raised me.