Kristan Marvell is a Los Angeles-based artist who has exhibited his sculptures in the United States and internationally. Working in both bronze and mixed media

his sculptures have been shown at such venues as Shoshona Wayne Gallery, Santa

Monica, CA, Denis Ochi Fine Arts, Ketchum, ID, and Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, Il,

while his large-scale bronzes are included in public spaces such as City of Hope, Duarte,

CA, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens, Claremont, CA and Vibrato Grill and Jazz

Club, Beverly Hills, CA. Upcoming shows include Commonwealth and Council, Los

Angeles, CA; Brand Library and Cultural Center, Glendale, CA; and Andlab Gallery, Los

Angeles, CA.

Marvell has B. of S. degrees in Biology and Political Science, and a M.F.A. from

Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL.

 

 

Artist’s Statement

I am a sculptor and mostly I carve. Thirty years ago I discovered the use of electrically

heated wires or “hot wires” and since then, hot wires of various lengths have been my

primary tools, and my chosen material, Styrofoam.

The aftermath of modernism, abstraction as a universal system of technical control, the

recognition of recurring forms as derived from nature, is what influences my work, as

well as, the way only sculpture can allow for a different type of remembrance as it fully

occupies three-dimensional space. My abstract, sculptural forms are about motion,

gesture, and time, and often seen as tectonic and geological, but its strengths lie in the

contrast between the power of the tectonic and the soft sometime figurative gestures. The

form evolves as the wire is pulled and orchestrated through massive blocks of white

Styrofoam. This method allows for the improvisational and active removal of material

and enables me to pioneer what I call spontaneous carving. Historically, carving has

never been a spontaneous event, but a laborious chip, chip, chipping process; in contrast

this carving technique allows me to simultaneously sculpt both the positive and negative

forms, becoming a fluid, gestural, expression.