New works, including a monumental steel sculpture, by the preeminent American artist Mark di Suvero is on view at the Paula Cooper Gallery in NYC.
Mark di Suvero continues to test the limits of large-scale sculpture, engaging space through seemingly weightless compositions of colossal steel beams, torqued metal and kinetic elements. The never-before-seen “Paula’s Pleasure,” a soaring construction measuring approximately 20-feet in height, is an assemblage of intersecting I-beams tied around a central steel “knot”. The piece invites active contemplation from various angles, shifting our perception of space and sense of balance as we move under and around it.
Di Suvero was born in 1933 in Shanghai, China to Italian parents. In 1941 his family emigrated from China to California, and he moved to New York in 1957. In 1960 he had his first, widely praised exhibition at the Green Gallery. He later co-founded the Park Place Gallery, an artist-run cooperative where he exhibited through 1967. He was given his first retrospective exhibition in 1975 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and showed large-scale works at Le Jardin des Tuileries in Paris the same year. In addition to countless museum shows, he has had acclaimed citywide exhibitions in Nice (1991), Venice (1995, on the occasion of the 46th Venice Biennale) and Paris (1997).
His monumental sculpture called “T8” is installed in downtown Des Moines at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park.
Mark di Suvero is a lifelong activist for peace and social justice, and has demonstrated a generous commitment to helping artists. In 1986, he established Socrates Sculpture Park at the site of a landfill on the East River in Queens, New York. Through his leadership, a 4.5 acre parcel was transformed by a coalition of artists and community members into an open studio and exhibition space. To date, the park has hosted the work of over 800 artists.