The Strong Are Saying Nothing DETAIL, PHOTO BY TOM GROTTA
Lawrence LaBianca wants “to be the blacksmith of the future.” His sculptures are both abstract and narrative, combining the natural, like branches,twigs and stones, and the manmade, including glass and metal hinges and pulleys, in intriguing ways that create insightful messages about out role in the natural world. In The Strong Are Saying Nothing, one of two works by LaBianca that browngrotta arts will exhibit at SOFA NY 2012, the artist was influenced by the work of Robert Frost and by toy push puppets that become animated through kinetic activity.
5lb The Strong Are Saying Nothing Lawrence LaBianca, oak, steel, modified winch, steel cable102â x 32â x 24.5â, 2011, photo by Tom Grotta.
The result was an animated tree of oak, steel, cable and a modified winch, that requires the viewer to consider ideas of taming, manipulation, innocence and constraint. LaBianca just finished an artist’s residency at Anderson Ranch in Colorado. He is an Adjunct Professor at the California College of the Arts. His work has been exhibited at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Craft and Folk Museum, San Francisco, California; Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts; Virginia Groot Foundation Visual Perspectives, Chicago, Illinois; Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, California; Oliver Arts Center, Oakland, California; Richmond Art Center, California; Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, California; Bitters Gallery, Seattle, Washington.