Artist Talk: Martin Alexander and Lauren Verdugo
On the occasion of the exhibition, Building Blocks: Process & Wood, Los Angeles-based artists Martin Alexander and Lauren Verdugo talk about their work and their shared interests in materiality, reconceptions of functionality, and expressions of identity. Both artists were filmed for the Craft Video Dictionary.
Martin Alexander Hernandez is a multidisciplinary sculptor and woodworker. He graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a BFA in Woodworking in 2018. Shortly after this, he opened his studio practice, Martin Alexander Studio, in Los Angeles, California. Since then, he has produced sculptural work and designed furniture utilizing both his personal studio and wood shops throughout the Los Angeles area. He has also honed his skills by apprenticing under a variety of artists and furniture studios.
Hernandez’s work fuses traditional craft techniques with a conceptual design approach. He is interested in material sustainability, often producing sculptural work with found materials. He currently serves as the shop tech at Allied Woodshop in Los Angeles.
Lauren Verdugo is a Southern California-based artist, woodworker, and furniture designer. Verdugo began their formal training in 2016 by apprenticing with master woodworker Larry White, whom they met through an internship at the Sam and Alfreda Maloof foundation. They went on to complete their BA in Applied Design at San Diego State University in 2021, and are currently enrolled in the Wood MFA program at California State University, Long Beach.
Verdugo’s designs emphasize the unique attributes of their source material, including history, meaning, and physical features. Minimalist forms are punctuated by playful decorative elements. Verdugo rhythmically juxtaposes hard and soft lines, heavy and light features, resulting in works which appear sturdy, yet distinctly energetic. In addition to their multimedia arts practice, they teach wood workshops at the Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation in Alta Loma, California and at Allied Woodshop in Los Angeles.
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Artist Talk: Larry White
Woodworking artist Larry White talks about his development with Sam Maloof and his ensuing decades-long practice in both woodworking and art. Learn about his stream-of-consciousness creative process and how his inspiration comes from a wide range of sources.
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Norm Sartorius
A creator of wooden spoons for 30 years, Norm Sartorius has explored the common wooden spoon as a context for sculpture. Using rare and unusual woods of exceptional beauty, he shapes each spoon to stand as a unique artistic statement of color, form, and texture. Testing the boundary between art and craft, his work is inspired by the material, nature, and rich ethnic spoon making traditions worldwide. In the end, it is always the dialogue between the maker and the wood that results in a form that happens to be a sculptural spoon. Often referred to as “Ceremonial Objects”, Sartorius’ spoons vary in size and shape, each being solely created by the artist.
Artist Talk: Reuben Foat and Ryan Taber
On the occasion of the exhibition, Building Blocks: Process & Wood, Los Angeles-based artists Reuben Foat and Ryan Taber will talk about their shared interest in reconsidering historic furniture processes and their perspectives on furniture education approaches and opportunities. Both artists were consulted for the Craft Video Dictionary.
Reuben Foat is a furniture designer and sculptor who is recognized for his traditional and technological approach to furniture. Finding inspiration in both old and new approaches to making, Foat creates much of his work using technologies like computer-aided-design and computer-aided-manufacturing.
Foat was raised in Mukwonago, Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin where he received a BS in Art and learned furniture design. Foat then took on several positions as a cabinet maker, furniture restorer, and furniture designer before attending San Diego State University where he received his MFA with a concentration in furniture design and digital fabrication. Foat currently works out of his studio in Long Beach, California, while serving as a professor and chair of the Woodworking Department at Cerritos College.
Ryan Taber is an artist, woodworker, and educator. Since 2015, he has served as head of the Wood program at the School of Art at California State University, Long Beach. The program has continued to evolve under Taber’s leadership, emphasizing sustainability and critical thinking at every step in the creative process.
Taber’s art practice is discursive, drawing on painting, photography, sculpture and furniture making. Each piece utilizes an intricate web of historical references to interrogate notions of art and visual culture. The work considers historical shifts in social perspectives on objecthood and materiality, which is reflected in the CSULB Wood program’s initiative to up cycle wood from nearby dead trees in order to reduce the industrially produced materials used by students. The challenges inherent in working with imperfect, recycled wood encourage Taber’s students to continuously problem solve and maintain an ongoing dialogue with their materials.
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Building Blocks: Process & Wood Opening Reception
Please join the artists to celebrate the opening of this exhibition featuring new interpretations of wood in traditional methods. This exhibition presents objects that express contemporary perspectives while having been constructed through a variety of techniques that have been the essential building blocks for shaping furnishings over time.
Participating Artists: Reuben Foat, Martin Alexander, Ryan Taber, Lauren Verdugo, Larry White and Max Wilson
Building a miniature bowback chair
Miniaturist Mark Murphy shares his process for creating intricately detailed miniature furniture. Bonus video from the MINIATURES episode
Building Blocks: Process & Wood
In celebration of the launch of the new Craft Video Dictionary (CVD), Craft in America is organizing an exhibition of woodwork and furniture-based sculpture made by the artists who were consulted and filmed for CVD definitions. The exhibition will consist of approximately two dozen recent works made by seven leading artists in the field who are based across Southern California. Ranging in styles and perspectives, these artists are unified by their dedication to formal innovation coupled with profound understanding of materials and techniques.
The fundamental techniques of woodworking are age old and yet they remain vital in current practices. Artists conceptualize new structures, design how they can be actualized, and execute them with the methods that have largely existed for centuries. In some cases, equipment, tools, and gear have changed. But for the most part, craft approaches remain similar or identical to historic methods for manipulating wood. What has shifted is the expressive input of the artists and their fresh take on functional objects. This exhibition presents objects that were constructed through a variety of techniques that have been the essential building blocks for shaping furnishings over time.
Participating Artists: Martin Alexander, Reuben Foat, David Johnson, Ryan Taber, Lauren Verdugo, Larry White, and Max Wilson
About the Craft Video Dictionary:
The Craft Video Dictionary is a new digital tool for understanding how objects are made. Launching in early 2024 with an initial exemplary array of video definitions that span media, material, process, and discipline, the CVD will continue to expand and develop over time. New, additional video definitions will be added at later intervals in 2024 and beyond. Especially for those who are not makers or artists, the CVD provides a chance to gain awareness about the crafting of objects, in real time. These educational videos are intended to clarify, elucidate, document and explain craft techniques.
Virtual Gallery
Click and drag, or use your arrow keys, to see a 360º view of the virtual space.
Mark Murphy segment
Miniaturist Mark Murphy shares his process for creating intricately detailed miniature furniture. We travel with him to the Chicago International Miniatures Show and connect with his community of other remarkable miniature artists. Segment from the MINIATURES episode, now streaming on the PBS App, pbs.org/craftinamerica, and craftinamerica.org. PBS broadcast premiere December 29, 2023 (check local listings).
Mark Murphy shows us his miniature furniture
Miniaturist Mark Murphy shows us his miniature 1/12th scale furniture made in collaboration with Annelle Ferguson, Lee-Ann Wessel, Mary Grady O’Brien, and Pat Richards. Bonus video from the MINIATURES episode, now streaming on the PBS App, pbs.org/craftinamerica, and craftinamerica.org. PBS broadcast premiere December 29, 2023 (check local listings).
Spirit of Play: Craft and Imagination
For artists, play can mean serious work. Play allows the mind to roam and encounter unusual solutions, whether it be in process or concept. The processes of making and imagining work in tandem for these artists, where grand, exquisite, whimsical and magical forms emerge from diligent exploration.
This exhibition celebrates the power of imagination, big ideas, craft ingenuity, and the child in all of us. It spotlights the work of several artists who are profiled in the 2023 episodes in Craft in America’s PBS documentary series, PLAY and MINIATURES.
Participating artists:
- Miniaturist Mark Murphy
- Paper sculptor Roberto Benavidez
- Piñata artist Lorena Robletto
- Puppeteer, artist museum educator Schroeder Cherry
- Artist, advocate, educator Calder Kamin
The PBS broadcast premiere for PLAY and MINIATURES is December 29, 2023 (check local listings).
Virtual Gallery
Click and drag, or use your arrow keys, to see a 360º view of the virtual space, including tags with object information and images.
The Craft in America Center is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture. www.lacountyarts.org
