Artist 267
Jeff Muhs
Concrete Sculptures
dynamic free casting
Jeff Muhs (born 1966) is a contemporary American artist known for his paintings and sculptures.
He engages his work using various found materials and challenging concrete through combining them.
Our focus is set on his sculptural exploration of refuse, women’s clothing and industrial materials. Jeff explores the connection and ownership of items through his work.
Muhs explains his sculpture, “I’ve always been a sculptor. I’ve worked on a lot of different sculptures and paintings for that matter, done a lot of different styles and a lot of different mediums. I started young as a wood sculptor, which I did for all of my childhood to young adult life, and then I kind of stopped doing that for about fifteen years or so, as I was concentrating on painting and I was developing my career as a painter.
Then, when I built this house, I was using concrete to mix some of the countertops and I said listen what a great material this is, and I started doing sculpture in concrete. For the last 12 years, I’ve been sculpting primarily in concrete. You might have seen a couple of pieces out in the garden, and there’s a couple pieces in here and through the hallway.”
He elaborates on his choice of material, “With the concrete, the inspiration was really the material and finding new ways to form it to get more interesting shapes. This sculpture is probably about the tenth one, maybe even twentieth sculpture. I’m gradually seeing what I can do with concrete and how I can develop shapes and make it interesting. Every time I make a sculpture, I say wow, this is really interesting; what if I did this with it? So the material process is what has been inspiring the work. “
"My concrete sculpture is concerned with a process that I have come to call dynamic free casting. Within this process I have developed new methods for forming concrete, which embrace the insubordinate qualities of the medium.
My compulsion is to orchestrate as completely as possible command over the powerful forces inherent to the medium thereby pushing the limits of the materials and my ability to control them to the absolute maximum.
“The results are a physical record of these efforts and lay the materials and process bare before the viewer while presenting me with new forms to explore. These results are the fertile ground of creation where I plough the realms of the infinite and leave new realities in my wake.
...The shoes give form to the formless, their design extends into the nebulous concrete to create a new order." - Jeff Muhs
If I ever get the chance to interview Jeff Muhs I would love to know why he choices female clothing and traditional restrictive garments in his work. It could be interesting to see his perspective.
Sources Consulted
https://whatshamptoning.com/jeff-muhs-hamptons-artist-sculptor/
http://www.artnet.com/artists/jeff-muhs/
https://www.artspace.com/artist/jeff_muhs
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