Tag Archives: Mark Webber

Mark Webber at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art

Artist Mark Webber to be featured in the exhibition, Paste and Cut: Contemporary Sculpture in Plaster, on view at the Lauren Rogers Museum in Laurel, Mississippi August 31 – November 7, 2021.

Visitors to the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art are greeted in a lobby richly decorated with golden oak paneling and cork floors. They may not notice that the ornamentation continues above, with a ceiling featuring beautiful plaster work.  The design was suggested by Charles J. Watson of the Chicago interior decorating firm Watson and Walton, created by Frederick Mottas, and executed by the French-American master craftsman Léon Herman. It features low relief depictions of flora, fauna, and celestial bodies.  In honor of this enchanting adornment, and in a continuation of a series of exhibitions that celebrate how artists are breathing new life into techniques and forms found in centuries-old art and design, the Museum presents this exhibition of works in plaster by contemporary artists Amy Kann, Jedediah Morfit, and Mark Webber. Their works show the effectiveness of utilizing the medium in traditional, conceptual, and abstract forms.

Read the further details about the exhibition on AnitaRogersGallery.com

Mark Webber: Material Guy

Mark Webber Anita Rogers Gallery Hamptons Cottages and Gardens
Mark Webber practices two very different kinds of work. His vocation: custom cabinetry fabricated for high-end Hamptons homes. His avocation: sculptures made with Hydrocal, a plaster-like material, and a mélange of found objects from construction sites and other sources. Although these two endeavors are vastly disparate, both are rooted in the art of fabrication. “There’s a craftsmanship aspect to cabinetmaking, whereas sculpture requires you to be more creative,” says Webber, a Connecticut native and longtime resident of Sag Harbor. “Sculpture does not have an inherent purpose, like a cabinet does. I have to think about different things when I’m making either one.”

Webber graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from SUNY Purchase in 1980, but soon shifted his focus to cabinetmaking to make a living. Around five years ago, however, he decided to “acknowledge my creativity again” and began experimenting with sculpture. He started working on wooden forms before transitioning to plaster and, more recently, Hydrocal, which he casts or shapes with hand tools, such as spatulas and knives. “All those years as a cabinetmaker gave me a solid base from which to start making sculpture,” Webber says. “It was like my springboard back into fine arts.” He has lately been pushing the boundaries of his pieces further, incorporating found objects— steel scraps, bricks, rubber—in order to bring a sense of tension and balance or create “an interesting compositional relationship.”

 

ArtNet: 13 of Our Favorite Gallery Shows From Coast to Coast That You Can Visit Virtually

Art galleries provide necessary spaces for creative discovery and connection—experiences we all may be seeking in our current existences. Luckily, many galleries across the country can still be visited virtually, and at your work-from-home leisure through Artnet Galleries.

If you’re in need of an art break, here are 13 of our favorite exhibitions, from New York to California, that you can gallery hop through your laptop.

2. “Mark Webber: We Shall Be City Upon a Hill” at Anita Rogers Gallery, New York

Free

Time: All day, every day

Take a virtual tour of Mark Webber’s exhibition here. 

View select pieces from Mark Webber’s solo exhibition.

Installation view of “Mark Webber: We Shall be a City Upon a Hill.” Photo by Jon-Paul Rodriguez

Installation view of “Mark Webber: We Shall be a City Upon a Hill.” Photo by Jon-Paul Rodriguez

 

 

Visit Mark Webber’s ‘We Shall be a City Upon a Hill’ on Artland

Anita Rogers Gallery has partnered with Artland.com to bring you a 3D tour of Mark Webber’s 2020 solo show, ‘We Shall be a City Upon a Hill.’

Click below to walk through the gallery and view Webber’s Portals, City of Sculptures and wall of Fragments.

Read the press release on anitarogersgallery.com

View the opening reception photos here.

On Mark Webber | An Essay by Eliza Callahan

Mark Webber. Untitled. 2019. Stone, Hydrocal, Steel. 23″ x 15″ x 9″

It is neither too difficult nor unreasonable, at this particular moment in time, to imagine a dramatic or catastrophic shift in our landscape that shuttles us into a new epoch. But what is left over after the event and who finds what is left?—Broken foundations, pieces of larger structures that no longer exist, colors stripped or faded away. Just like that, a new antiquity is formed. When looking at Mark Webber’s sculptures, which often take form as objects made from interlocking shapes, there is a sense that the parts which comprise the work are made from pieces of greater structures, a vision of what is left. Webber makes use of a combination of hand sculpted and ready-made, found materials to build his monochrome, architectural constructions (Webber sites Luis Barragan’s Emotional Architecture as an influence). His minimal formations often make use of hydrocal—a mixture of plaster and cement which appears almost like ceramic or stone—-as primary material which he then mingles or fastens with glass, wood, steel and sometimes string. The white sculptures lend a cycladic air. His studio which is so heavily populated by the work, appears like a small, dream-like city, a visible nod to Atelier Brancusi.

Webber’s sculptures are just as gestural as they are structural; there is a push and pull between calculation and happenstance. In them an, intrinsic harmony exists—like pieces from varying puzzles that have somehow slipped (or wedged) into peaceful accord. In Webber’s sculptures, modernism’s sharp, clean edges and hard angled forms have been blunted and weathered as if by the elements. (Webber is a devoted sailor and paddler and a nautical note is present).

It is compelling to consider Webber’s background as a cabinet maker and furniture designer in relation to his art objects which visibly share some lineage with functional design. While Webber’s sculptures lend an air of function, as viewers, we are not able to gather what that function might be, and that is not the point.

– Eliza Callahan

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Mark Webber in 27East

The work of Mark Webber, an artist based in New York City and Sag Harbor, will be featured in “We Shall Be A City Upon A Hill,” an exhibition running February 12 to March 14, at Anita Rogers Gallery in Manhattan.

Mark Webber. Untitled. 2019. Glass, hydrocal, copper, paper and permanent marker. 7h x 4 1/2w x 3d in

Webber has been steeped in visual art his entire life. Growing up in a house filled with world-class art (his mother was on the Acquisition Committee of MoMA), he was inspired by the Miro, Henry Moore and Jim Dine work on the walls and went on to study art at Banff, Windham College, earning a BFA from SUNY Purchase.

In addition to painting, sculpting and drawing, Webber is also an accomplished furniture designer and woodworker, sailor and paddler. When he is not in the studio, he is drawing further inspiration from being on the water.

“I take traditionally static forms such as rectangles, ellipse and lines and uncover subtle subtexts such as intimacy, separation and balance,” said Webber in a statement. “The viewer is welcomed to draw their own conclusions about how a piece stands, supports itself, engages in a dialogue with the materials used. Whether it is the process or the materials, each piece finds a balance through gravity and composition.”

Anita Rogers Gallery is located at 15 Greene Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. The show opens with a reception on Wednesday, February 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information visit anitarogersgallery.com.

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Hamptons Art Hub | Mark Webber: We Shall be a City Upon a Hill

 

Anita Rogers Gallery presents We Shall be a City Upon a Hill, an exhibition of work by American artist Mark Webber. The show will be on view February 12 – March 21, 2020 at 15 Greene Street, Ground Floor in SoHo, New York. The gallery will host a reception with the artist on Wednesday, February 12, 6-8pm.

Mark Webber. Untitled (Structures Series). 2019. Stone and hydrocal. 22″ x 12″ x 15″

The exhibition will feature a variety of work ranging from eight-foot-tall portals to tabletop structures, as well as small, handheld fragments. Webber works with a diverse range of materials, including hydrocal, stone, steel, glass and wood. It will be the artist’s largest and most varied exhibition to date.

Webber studied under Charles Ginnever and Peter Forakis at Windham College in Vermont. He received a BFA in sculpture at SUNY, Purchase. He has exhibited at many galleries in the Hamptons and is in several private collections on the East Coast. This will be his first solo exhibition with Anita Rogers Gallery. Webber resides in SSag Harbor, NY in The Hamptons.

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The Art Scene: 02.06.20 | Mark Webber Sculpture

 

Mark Webber Sculpture 

“We Shall Be a City Upon a Hill,” a show of sculpture by Mark Webber of Sag Harbor, will open at Anita Rogers Gallery in SoHo with a reception on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. and continue through March 21. The artist’s largest show to date, it will include work ranging from small fragments to standing sculptures eight feet tall.

Mark Webber. Untitled. 2019. Hydrocal, copper, wood and steel. 16″ x 10″ x 8″

Rectangular monoliths with smaller rectangular sections cut out from their center, which Mr. Webber calls “portals,” are a recurrent theme in his work. He also makes wire constructions, drawings, collages, totems, and a variety of other objects that reflect his sensitivity to such materials as plaster, glass, copper, steel, papier-mache, and Hydrocal.

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One Stop: The Slow Slope of Modernism

Organized by Virva Hinnemo & George Negroponte

One Stop: The Slow Slope of Modernism

Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at the age of 91. That was the day Modernism made a pronounced pivot away from the mythical to the merely mortal; the divine wheel of culture got badly poked. Andy Warhol’s wizardry of mass media made a mad dash to fill the void and the ensuing years witnessed piles of debris not unlike an Indiana State Fair Demolition Derby. It is no wonder that by the mid-1970s TV Guide’s circulation reached more than 19 million while a quarter of the galleries at The Metropolitan Museum were shuttered due to lack of funds and visitors. The cruelty of neglect cast aside many of the most innovative artists of Modernism: Andre Derain, Georges Rouault, El Lissitzky, Maurice de Vlaminck, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Emile Nolde, Jacques Villon, August Mack, Franz Marc, Max Beckman, Vorticism, Pittura Metafisica, and on and on. Without these artists the story of modern art remains wholly unrecognizable and all the while generational amnesia keeps history downgraded to the back seat.

This exhibit of small works includes 30 artists and is taking place 106.9 miles from NYC. It won’t show up on a Richter scale measuring earthquakes but it does make a deep and meaningful gesture towards the 20th century. There is an odd troglodyte tendency throughout all these works along with the assertion that the ancient highway of “Painting and Sculpture’ really does still exist. And yes, it’s paved with ruts, potholes, regrets and splendor. Each and every artist in this show knows these risks because immunity won’t be delivered on a golden platter. Each work is a physical claim taking up the appropriate amount of space while its meaning is embedded beneath a surface of nuanced substance. If given the chance to speak in unison all these works would proudly deliver the same and insistent message: “I’m real!”

– George Negroponte

Mark Webber. Untitled Structure. 2019. Hydrocal and steel. 12″ x 9″ x 8″

October 2019

One Stop:
The Slow Slope of Modernism

Opening Reception
November 23rd, 5pm

Keyes Art Gallery
45 Main Street
At the American Hotel
Sag Harbor, NY

Winter Group Exhibition Featured on ArtDaily.org

Anita Rogers Gallery Opens Group Exhibition of Work by Three Artists

NEW YORK, NY.- Anita Rogers Gallery presents a group exhibition of work by three artists: John Ashworth, Gordon Moore and Mark Webber. The gallery introduces John Ashworth to the gallery for the first time; Ashworth’s detailed acrylic paintings on paper, canvas and panel are rich in texture, detail and illuminated color. Moore’s works on photo emulsion paper explore depth, perspective, balance and asymmetry. Webber’s hydrocal and plaster sculptures recall architectural forms but are firmly sculpture; the works are defined by their elegant lines and careful balance. The exhibition is on view January 9 – February 2, 2019 at 15 Greene Street, Ground Floor, New York, NY 10013.
john-ashworth-anita-rogers-gallery
Born in New York in 1939, painter/sculptor John Ashworth began appreciating art at the age of 8 while visiting seminal institutions such as Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art — as well as 57th Street galleries. Two years later, his own work hung — with that of artists many years his senior — at Washington Square Park. Exhibition attendees purchased all of his hundreds of folded, Rorschach-type blots in poster paint on typing paper pasted onto vertical scrolls. After moving to Massachusetts, where he graduated from high school in 1956, John pursued applied industrial physics at Wentworth Institute in Boston. From there, he majored in civil and structural engineering at Northeastern University and then attended Harvard University Graduate School of Design and, on scholarship, Boston’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts.

Born in Cherokee, IA, Gordon Moore received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1970 and then went on to receive his MFA from Yale University in 1972. He has received numerous awards and grants including the National Endowment for the Arts-Visual Artists Fellowship, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in Painting, the Adolph and Ester Gottlieb Foundation Award in Painting, the Academy Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Moore’s work can be seen in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), Yale University Art Gallery (CT), Baltimore Museum of Art (MD), General Electric Corporation (OH), the Krannert Art Museum (IL) and Kinkead Pavilion (IL). Most recently, Moore’s work was shown in a major solo exhibition at the Salina Art Center in Kansas. The gallery will host a solo exhibition of work by the artist in February 2019.

Mark Webber resides in Sag Harbor, NY where he has worked as a cabinetmaker for many years. There he learned the craft of making objects and put in his time to develop that ability. Webber studied under Charles Ginnever and Peter Forakis at Windham College in Vermont. He received a BFA in sculpture at SUNY, Purchase. He has exhibited at many galleries in the Hamptons and is in several private collections on the East Coast.

 

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