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Sculpture

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Bent 14x18x5 2008
Rusty Spring 36x34x3 2009
Gutter 13x10x4 2007
Bush 36x34x3 2010
Belly Button 17x23x5 2008
Hydra 12x16x3 2007
Junk Yard Dream 75x36x12 2009
Tree 38x30x5 2010
Diagonal Line 18x11x4 2007
Viola 15x14x8 2008
Fragment 15x17x4 2010
Sea Foam 57x47x18 2010
Pipes 15x7x5 2010
Tie 24x10x4 2008
Wharf 13x11x4 2008
Tahra 16x16x3 2008
Wave 10x15x5 2009
Double Rohan 17x16x3
Ribbed Box 48x40x15 2010
Desert Flower 19x17x12 2010
Ice Age 166x10 2007
Bent Two 24x17x12 2009
Boat 20x19x9 2009
Double.Double Toil and Trouble

Bent 14x18x5 2008
Rusty Spring 36x34x3 2009
Gutter 13x10x4 2007
Bush 36x34x3 2010
Belly Button 17x23x5 2008
Hydra 12x16x3 2007
Junk Yard Dream 75x36x12 2009
Tree 38x30x5 2010
Diagonal Line 18x11x4 2007
Viola 15x14x8 2008
Fragment 15x17x4 2010
Sea Foam 57x47x18 2010
Pipes 15x7x5 2010
Tie 24x10x4 2008
Wharf 13x11x4 2008
Tahra 16x16x3 2008
Wave 10x15x5 2009
Double Rohan 17x16x3
Ribbed Box 48x40x15 2010
Desert Flower 19x17x12 2010
Ice Age 166x10 2007
Bent Two 24x17x12 2009
Boat 20x19x9 2009
Double.Double Toil and Trouble

Exterior

Under Construction

Drawings

Under Construction

Bio

EDUCATIONMaster of Fine Arts, concentration in sculptureRhode Island School of DesignBachelor of Fine Arts, concentration in sculptureUniversity of New Hampshire TEACHING EXPERIENCEThe City University of New York, C.U.N.Y.Lehman CollegeChair Art Department. Present Associate Professor Of Art and TechnologyBloomfield CollegeCreative Arts and TechnologyProfessor of Creative Arts and TechnologyMontclair State UniversityHalftime Position:Jewelry Department SupervisorFulltime and Adjunct Position:Sculpture DepartmentNew York City Board of EducationLearning to Read Through the ArtsGrades 5-9New York, New YorkGuggenheim Museum Childrens ProgramNew York, New YorkSculpture with children grades 5-8Rhode Island School of DesignProvidence, Rhode IslandAdjunct: sculpturePage 1CLASSES TAUGHT: Under Graduate and Graduate Level Sculpture, Metal Casting, Welding, Steel Fabrication, Jewelry Casting, Jewelry Fabrication, Mold making, Digital Sculpture Techniques, Maya 3D Drawing, Web technology, Flash, Digital Drawing, 2d Design, 3d Design and other digital medias.SOLO EXHIBITIONS: Leslie Cecil Gallery, New York, N.Y.Steel fabrications Elizaberth Weiner GalleryNew York, N.Y.Paco GalleryNew York, NY Sculpture Warren Benedek Gallery, New York, New York Rubber Constructions Permanent Installations: Outdoor Sculpture Museum of Modern Art of Latin America, Organization of American States (OAS) Washington, D.C., Aztec GardenE.F. Hutton Corporation,New York, N.Y. (American Express)White Metal Industries,New Jersey Titan Steel Corporation,New York, N.Y. University of New Hampshire, Durham, New HampshireTV ProgramsInside Lehman VII: 3d printing techniques used to create sculpture. Filmed and shown on CUNY TV by Inside Lehman directed by Tom OHanlon December of 2006 As a demonstration of the mixture of technology with art.LecturesPennDesign, University of Pennsylvania Architectural College Alumni.Studio visit and talk Panel DiscussionsPresentation and panel discussion on technology today. Organized by the Art Council of England, and London Arts.Digital ProjectsSelected by Arts Council of England, British Council, and London Arts to open the Connecting Flights-new Cultures of the Diaspora conference at the British Library, London.Web site on immigration patternsDigital Project for the Great Britain Arts Council to be used for the2002 UK- NY Festival, London and New York.Public ProjectsNew Jersey State Council On the Arts, Sculpture Commission, Percent for Art, Calcia Fine Art Gates, Montclair State UniversityUpper Montclair, New JerseyMunicipal Fire House Center Gate, Bronx, N.Y. Group Exhibitions:ArteAmericas 2007 The Latin American Art FairMiami Beach Convention CenterOrganized by Merrill LynchMuseum of Modern Art of Latin America,Aztec GardenWashington, D.C. Sculpture of the Americas"Latin American Cultural Week Percepcion Aotomama, 601 west 28th St, NY NY page 3Group Exhibitions (continued)Montclair State College GalleryUpper Montclair, New JerseyLeslie Cecil Gallery, New York, N.Y. Project America, Federal Plaza,New York, N.Y.Works in steelSculpture Center, New York, N.Y. Contemporary Reflections Museum of Modern Art of Latin America Organization of American States (OAS) Washington, D.C., Aztec Garden Cheltenham Art Center Curated by Marsha Moss Glendale, PennsylvaniaSculpture Center, New York, N.Y.OIA Outdoor,Curated by Elizabeth EggbertStaten Island, N.YSculpture Center, New York, N.Y. "Painted Sculpture" Curated by April KingsleyThe Drawing Center, New York, N.Y. "New Drawings in America"Elizabeth Weiner Gallery, East Hampton, New York The Drawing Center, New York, N.Y. Curated by Martha BeckRainbow Foundation: Icarus Show, Mexico City, MexicoO.K. Harris Gallery, New York, N.Y.Center for Inter-American Relations, New York, N.Y. Curated by Peter FrankPage 4Group Exhibitions (continued)Galleria Paco, New York, N.Y.Xerox Corporation, New York, N.Y.Grand Rapids Museum of Art, Grand Rapids, MichiganState University of New York, (SUNY)Potsdam, NYThe Aldrich Museum, "Contemporary Reflections"Ridgefield, ConnecticutBrooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, N.Y.Art Gallery of the American Academy of Arts

Art_ResumeDates.pdf

Artist Statement.pdf

charliesep_gmail.com

55 Bethune Street

New York, N.Y.10014

Artist StatementPlaner ArtMy art has its roots in traditional geometric abstraction. In particular, my roots in sculpture originate with The Planar Dimension, a sculptural movement that emerged in Europe from 1912-1932 that included artists, such as: Gabo, Miro, Balla, and the Russian Constructionists.Planar sculpture is an art form made with flat surfaces, usually out of metal or steel. The model or macaque material is often paper or cardboard. It uses a reductive process whereby the form is reduced to an abstract language of visual fundamentals, including: line, color, texture, light, and form. The process for fabrication has always been folding, piercing, bending, cutting, and joining. This creates interplay of thin continuous surfaces.This style of sculpture continued to develop in the latter part of the century with Arp, Calder, and David Smith. Today, sculptors, such as, Mark di Suvero and Richard Serra carry on the tradition, using industrial, oxidized materials on a grand scale, to express certain essential attributes of matter.My WorkMy approach differs from traditional planar sculpture in several important ways. To begin with, I carve my sculpture from a solid block of lightweight material, namely Styrofoam. I have been working and experimenting with Styrofoam since 1968, when I attended the Rhode Island School of Design. Using the lost Styrofoam casting technique, I made molds cast in bronze, aluminum, and iron. This process has enabled me to understand the surfaces I am now working with.The advantages of Styrofoam over metal, iron, or steel are significant. My pieces are easy to manipulate, to install, to transport, and to insure, thus providing great artistic freedom. Next, to design and execute my ideas, I combine traditional sculptural methods with the newest digital tools. The ability to marry my two passions, plastic arts and technology, has been truly inspirational. It has created a new metal for me. Through digital programs, rapid prototyping, and computer-controlled cutting machinery, I am able to achieve contrasts and harmonies between mass and line that I can translate into a solid sculpture.To create my sculptures, I start by making a series of computer drawings in Adobe Illustrator, which are fed into Maya 3D, a three-dimensional program. These computer rendered drawings are then enhanced by newly developed digital construction and processing tools. In terms of carving and constructive methods, the use of computerized programs and machinery provides powerful and distinct advantages. A sculpture can be adjusted by altering the drawing on the computer and then by re-cutting, providing an unprecedented precise control. Integrity to the drawing is perfect. Shaper crisper cuts, folds, and bends can be accomplished, as well as varying thicknesses of the sheet. Most important, when a form is cut, the drawing can still be altered and the computer has no problem reproducing the shape faithfully. Thus, my drawings and sculpture are in constant evolution. The use of a trompe-loeil surface treatment is to make the forms look like heavy old rusted cast metal. I use a play of lines and planes, in a three-dimensional setting, so the sculptures can changes depending on the viewpoint. The use of mazes and labyrinths create a beat or rhythm full of movement and energy, a dance of life.
About Work folds . copy

Good Night

My art has its roots in traditional geometric abstraction, these roots have been fed by the digital philosophies I have come to work with. Small is beautiful, communication is the most potent of potentials, change is constant, knowledge is time based and best when used to make connections. Personal empowerment is what the digital world puts at our disposal. Everything is connected. Recognition of quality goes hand in hand with creativity. My work explores the classic relationships between contrast and balance by using the opposing aesthetics of straight and curved, heavy and light, short and long, thick and thin, and tall and short. The goal of my artwork is a successful balance between light and shadow, what is there and what is notTo design and execute my ideas, I use traditional sculptural methods with the newest digital tools. I develop my drawings in Maya 3D, a three-dimensional drawing program that allows me to add mass and volume to linear drawings. I create my work using rapid prototyping and computer-controlled cutting technologies.The sculptures are in Styrofoam a very modern material. It is the Roger Dangerfield of material because of the lack of respect it has in peoples eyes. It carries no beauty to compete with. What you bring to it is what you get. It is lightweight, plentiful, cheap, and comes in all sizes and shapes. Foam is a perfect material for shaping, sanding and joining; it has no grain. It is also inert and takes well to different surface treatments.Our modern society is full of contrasts that lie beneath the surface. Often what one sees is not what it is. Everything is open to interpretation. Surface replaces structure. I use a trompe-loeil surface treatment to make my sculptures look like heavy rusted cast metal pieces. Fooling the eye and creating an optical illusion is part of the work. I EMPLOY THE STRATEGIES op art and use its play of lines and planes, in a three-dimensional setting, so the sculpture and SURFACE changes depending on THE angle FROM WHICH it is viewed.The sculptures are also variations of mazes and labyrinths AND ALLUDE TO LIFES UNPREDICTABLE PATHS WITH winding PASSAGES IN WHICH we get hopelessly lost. Some paths are dead ends some lead us forward. We wander around often in a small area for a lifetime trying to find a way out. As a child I had a recurring nightmare of being lost in a maze. Later the maze became my friend because I knew all its twists and turns. My mazes NOW TRANSFORMED INTO SCULPTURE, represent the power of learning, experience, and time.

Exhibitions

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Bellas

Bellas Arte

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Museo

Museo de la Cuidad
CHARLES SEPLOWIN: TECHNOLOGY AS ARTBy Margaret Failoni The goals of the new frontier artists: .not to bow down to technology, but to bend technology to Fine Artsapplies to Charles Seplowins work and to this exhibition. As a former Chair and Associate Professor at Lehman College, of the City University of New York , Seplowin points his career towards creating fine art by using modern technologies made available thanks to scientists and mathematicians. To create the sculptures he is presently working on, Seplowin makes a series of computer drawings (Adobe Illustrator), and then feeds them into an especially designed program called the Maya 3D. The artist then decides on the side cuts which will give him a rough idea of the several possibilities at his disposal; he then feeds this information into a computerized hot-wire Styrofoam cutter, using the drawn lines as a guide so that the machines hot wires can cut into the Styrofoam. All the finished sculptures are made from thirty or more cuts. Several different pieces can be made from this three dimensional puzzle. The artists can then play around with the different pieces and decide on the final design. Once the pieces are glued together, the final piece is hand sanded to a fine finish and a hardener is applied to the surface. The next step is to apply an iron powder suspended in an acrylic medium. To finish, cold acids used normally for bronze patinas are then applied. This technology allows the artist to create sculpture from small to monumental, solid and iron or bronze-like in appearance, but much, much lighter, less expensive to make, to install, to transport and to insure, thus giving the artist more artistic freedom. Always the fine arts teacher, Seplowin wishes this exhibition and the explanation of how the work was produced, to be an inspiration for artists, knowing that fine art can be created affordably, using all the benefits that modern science has given them. Charles Seplowin was born in New York City of Mexican American parents and has his MFA from R.I.S.D.I.. With a successful career in the city as an esteemed teacher and with many exhibitions throughout the United States, Seplowin had his first exhibition in Mexico in early 2009 in the El Nigromante Cultural Center (Bellas Artes) in San Miguel de Allende. The successful responce from the Bellas Artes students and the public in general generated his desire to further exhibit in Mexico. He is now to working for a one-man show at the Museo de la Ciudad de Santiago de Queretaro: One Person Show in Queretaro, Mexico. The Director, Homer Gabriel, plans the show to travel in Mexico afterwards.

Creative

Creative Adaptations

One

One Brooklyn Place

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Recession

Santiago

Westbeth

SHOWS

Bellas Arte

Museo de la Cuidad

One Brooklyn Place

Recession Art Show

Santiago Corral

Westbeth Courtyard

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Charles Garcia Seplowin

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