Stan Smokler

BUCKEY BALL

Welded steel

Found & fabricated parts

44”h x 36”dx16d

Date -2010

Susan Isaccs, critic

"Over the years, Stan Smokier has remained true to his origins as a welder–a sculptor who came of age in the time of minimalism and large scale abstract metal compositions that evolved out of the vocabulary of David Smith and Tony Smith, of Anthony Caro and Mark di Suvero. Smokier has never denied his parentage. Yet, there has always been something in his work that is uniquely his too, and which embodies the aesthetics of the current century.

Smokier's work represents a visual vocabulary that often makes reference to things that are exterior to the artist, to geography, history, and even the stars. There is frequently an element of whimsy to Smokier's work, which defies its minimalist origins. Therein lies the magic of his sculpture. It is truthful and it is steadfast at the same time, and it does not take itself too seriously. Smokier does not try to efface his genesis, yet his position as almost an outsider-an artist who consistently makes his work on his own terms, without concern to trends, art politics, or the latest theories-makes his work even that much more tantalizing."

CONGRESS SPRING

Welded steel

Found and fabricated parts

26”h x 19” d x 18”w

Date - 2011

Neil Watson, Executive Director Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY

"Smokler is inspired by life's cast-offs to create sculptures thaI are like silent sentinels, transformed and separate from their original form as objects of the real world, The viewer has a moment of recognition that the materials are part of a cultural continuum, where industry and progress has been transformed to become the art of our time."

ExhIbition card
DeDe, Young, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Neuberger Museum

CONSTRUCTION # 9

Free standing welded steel, paint

88” H X 58”W X 24”D

Date - 2011

Judd Tully, Critic

"In a marked departure from his earlier work in welded steel and found objects. the new sculpture is both airier and tauter. creating a strongly rhythmic vocabulary of line as it relates to its surrounding geometric space. The industrial/found element component remains but they take on a more abstracted and less literal form ... Smokler's playful yet sophisticated manipulation 01 steel draws the viewer in without a whiff of overbearing pretension ... ln all of the new work, a more confident and liberating tone informs the graceful assembly of welded forms that oscillate and pirouette before the viewer."

CORNUCOPIA

Welded steel

24h x 17 w x 12D

Date - 2013

FIBONACCI

Welded & paint

28”h x 23”w x 9”d

Date- 2013

FRAME

Wall hanging

Welded steel

Found and fabricated objects

34”h x 33”w x 9”d

Date - 2012

GEYSER ISLAND SPOUTER

Welded steel

Found and fabricated parts

33”h x 13”w x 10”d

Date - 2011

LANDSCAPE

Wall hanging

Welded steel & puddling

32” h x 32”w x 7”d

Date – 2012/13

MOLOCULE

Wall hanging

Welded steel

19”h x 19”w x 4 ½ d

Date - 2011

Stephen Bruni, Director,
Delaware Art Museum

"Stan Smokier's sculpture is uniquely his own, but owes its fundamental expression to a spectrum of artists who find inspiration in the recycling and "rehabilitation" of found or discarded materials. Whether contemplating the cosmos in his Celestial Mapmaker series or mimicking the undersea forms of squid, mollusks, barnacles and bivalves, material and process are at the heart of his motivation and creative expression. Subject seems to unfold from the demands of shaping steel through the ·'science" of welding. While the finished sculpture may represent recognizable or natural forms, this result is more of a byproduct or point of departure than an end in itself. Smokier consistently confronts the rigid limitations of his medium by undermining the natural properties of hardened steel. It is only through empirical understanding of the material that any philosophical issues can be addressed. Creating organic compositions from inorganic material intentionally confuses what we know with what we feel."