Award-winning sculptor and Bridgewater College associate professor of art, Michael Hough, will display a new exhibition titled “Sabbatical Works 3” at Mary Baldwin University’s Hunt Gallery from January 23 to February 24.
The collection showcases welded sculptures and wall-hung masks that Hough constructs from salvaged scrap metal.
Viewers will be delighted by works like cartoonish chickens fashioned from old wrenches, pliers, lawn mower blades, and rebar. Elsewhere they’ll find anthropomorphic masks with faces made from antiquated plow discs, eyes crafted from industrial nuts and bolts, crowns of interlocking horseshoes, pitchfork antlers, and more.
“I’m interested in and excited by assemblage, sculpting with found iron and steel elements,” Hough wrote in an artist’s statement. “Working with farm implements, industrial [metal waste], and interesting scrap yard finds, I weld each piece to the next in search of both formalist relations and narrative connections.”
Hough says he doesn’t approach pieces with preconceived ideas of what a sculpture will look like, or the story it will tell. Instead, his process begins with hunting for discarded metal — the older the better — in places like scrap yards, online classified ads, or abandoned warehouses and factories. He then pores over finds at his New Hope studio looking for inspiration.
“I look at the lines, shapes, and negative spaces the parts create, relishing the process of discovery, and the surprise of how the individual elements relate,” Hough said. “As with all found objects, each of these pieces of metal had a previous life and use, and I enjoy finding ways of connecting those stories visually.”
Hough has been working as a celebrated professional artist for more than 30 years, and as a Bridgewater professor since 1997. He earned a BA and MA in ceramic sculpture from California State University, and an MFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design. His art has been featured in numerous museums and more than 50 galleries across the United States.
An opening reception for “Sabbatical Works 3” will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on January 23 in Hunt Gallery. The event is open to the public.
“I look at the lines, shapes, and negative spaces the parts create, relishing the process of discovery, and the surprise of how the individual elements relate.”
Sculptor Michael Hough