Architectural and and Environmental Artists - Jesse Schlesinger & Andy Vogt
Sausalito-based artist and woodworker, Schlesinger’s interdisciplinary practice encapsulates sculpture, social sculpture, drawing and film photography to create works that deal with ideas surrounding place, architecture, craft and the land itself. Through these areas of pursuit Schlesinger maintains a careful and ever-increasing minimalistic attitude and aesthetic.
He utilizes and re-contextualizes materials from both industrial and natural sources to explore the notion of the self as it exists within both an inherent and also fabricated habitat, and the experiences and inclinations found therein.
Schlesinger received his BFA in painting from the California College of the Arts. He now lives and works in both San Francisco and Sausalito. He was a 2012 Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, California and has also been included in group exhibitions at Eleanor Harwood and Triple Base galleries in San Francisco among others.
Vogt, who lives and works in San Francisco, is a sculptor works primarily with industrial materials such as wooden lath which is often cut into thin strips that then form complex, geometric configurations. His work, both two and three-dimensional, defies the naturally rough exterior quality of his materials, revealing instead a finely crafted sleekness. Vogt treats his sculpture almost like paper, creating hardened origami-like works that at times compliment and build spatial relationships with the spaces in which they are installed and exhibited.
Adobe (cone)
2009
24" x 37”
salvaged wood inlaid in plaster wall
By starting with such a simple and common material and transforming it through careful, manipulation, Vogt produces work that feels at once singularly unique and yet deeply rooted in a long history not only of woodwork but of craft and graphic design as well. He has recently begun using his wood sculpture techniques to make forms for casting cement. Under the Willow presents the first instance of his new, site specific, outdoor sculpture which is located in the garden.
Vogt received his BFA in an Intermedia program from the Carnegie Mellon University. He was a 2011 Artist-in-Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, California. He has had solo exhibitions at Eli Ridgway Gallery, Electric Works, The Museum of Craft and Design and Southern Exposure. His work has also been included in group exhibitions at Ampersand International Arts, Root Division, K Imperial Fine Art and Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco.
