Bruce Peebles's
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Sculpture - Dimensional
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Price Range: $2,500 - $15,000
Bio
Bruce Peebles began is art career as a sculptor in 1986 after graduating from Spring Hill College with a bachelor’s of arts in fine art.
From 1986 to 2001, his work largely reflected his passion for the human form, employed with an abstractionist’s simplicity of vision using wood as his preferred medium though some of his earlier works are in stone, bronze, or mixed media, incorporating found objects.
Peebles’ earlier work is deeply influenced by his time living and working in Zimbabwe, Africa. The directness and intensity of his sculptures reflect an early influence by Henry Moore.
Influenced by such notable op artists as Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riles, and other artists such as Duchamp, Man Ray, Calder and Ad Reinhardt, with obvious tendencies toward kinetic constructivism, Peebles literally elevates vintage op art to the three-dimensional, aligning himself with Vasarely’s earlier revelation that “Pure form and pure color can signify the world.�
Style
In his latest works, Peebles has moved away from expressing his observations about the world around him to dealing solely with the construction of the images in his own mind.
He has fine tuned a vocabulary of sculpture that pushes the manipulation of geometric shapes and the space between them to their material limits. He takes his cue from the outward appearance of landscapes and architecture, limitless space, rings and spirals in space, mirror images, inversion, polyhedrons, relativities, and the tension between the three-dimensional and inter-spatial elements.
Peebles modular pieces also reflect Donald Judd’s non-relational, pragmatically ordered works. His stunningly intricate shapes paradoxically take on a minimalist’s approach to the formerly two-dimensional studies most associated with optical art.
Recognizing the internal geometry of nature in Peebles’ work gives the viewer a sense of the familiar, but it remains solely his or her discretion what interpretation they’ll come away with. Most of Peebles’ modular op art sculptures conceptualize motion without actually ever performing it. In this way, the viewer becomes part of the kinetics, having all of the movement occur within the optical pathways to the brain. The observer then, cannot remain passive, but is free to interpret the image in as many visual scenarios as his mind can conceive. The incorporation of negative space as part of the sculpture only adds to his interplay between the art and the viewer.
Artist Statement
My modular op art sculptures represent seeing beyond. They each have a three-dimensional effect that literally pops out at you, once you see it. For me, they’re a metaphor for seeing beyond what’s right in front of us spiritually and creatively. It’s that realization that things are almost always more than what they seem. They represent turning two-dimensional thinking into three-dimensional thinking.
There are times in a person’s life when we become aware of viewing the world around us from a broader perspective. That’s what these sculptures are meant to convey. These epiphanies which we have at points throughout our lifetimes are major paradigm shifts. These moments become gateways into new passages in our lives, marking our journey. The deconstructed nature of these sculptures; their paradoxical ability to convey clean, simple form-complex in function, is a milestone in my progression as an artist. This is my paradigm shift.
Awards
Sculpture entitled, “Mother and Child�, winner of the Design Excellence Award from American Institute of Architects. This work is permanently displayed at the Tennessee State Capitol building in Nashville, Tenn.
Chosen by state officials to represent Tennessee by creating a sculpture for the Bridgestone Corporate, commemorating their sponsorship of the nationally touring Master Works Show. The piece, entitled, “Rising Spirit� is housed in the Bridgestone corporate headquarters in Japan.
Exhibitions
Karen Lynne Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
Karen Lynne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Dragon Fine Art, Nashville, TN
Kent gallery, Key West, FL
SOFA International, Chicago, IL
Art Expo Florida, Miami< FL
Striped Door Gallery, Nashville, TN
Shidoni Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Stone Dynamics Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
Coconut Grove Gallery, Miami, FL
Euro Galleries, Minneapolis, MN
The Arts Company, Nashville, TN
Bennett Gallery, Nashville, TN
Museum Collections
2006 Tennessee State Museum – “Dragonfly�
2002 Tennessee State Museum – “Flying Pregnant Woman with Red Socks�
1990 Cheekwood Museum of Fine Art – “Skin Deep�
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