Wendell Castle’s work showcased in New York

The Museum of Arts and Design in New York is featuring “Wendell Castle Remastered,” an exhibition that opened in October and is scheduled to run through Feb. 28, 2016.

This is the first museum exhibition to examine the digitally crafted works of Castle, a furniture artisan, designer, sculptor and educator. Castle has won numerous awards throughout a career that began in 1958, including The Furniture Society’s Award of Distinction.

In the exhibition, emphasis is put on Castle’s first artistic production with a new body of work that revisits his achievements of the 1960s through a modern-day view. This self-reflective display examines a crucial period during which Castle’s sculptural practices came to define his pivotal role as a leader in the field and set the foundation for his longevity, according to the museum.

Castle produced new works for the exhibition through his latest practice of combining handcraftsmanship, such as carving, rasping and finishing with digital technologies including 3-D scanning, 3-D modeling and computer-controlled milling. The pieces were based on a selection of Castle’s own historically significant works that were chosen by Museum of Arts and Design curator Ron Labaco.

Three-man show

The Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala, Fla., is hosting “A Fine Timber: Wood and Transformation in Our Time” through Jan. 3, 2016. The exhibition, which opened in November, is focused on three artists currently creating expressions in wood.

The artists are Chuck Sharbaugh, who creates uniquely crafted cabinets with marquetry inlay in the Arts and Crafts style; Eric Serritella, an award-winning ceramicist who turns clay into trompe l’oil objects that appear to be crafted out of birch bark, and Bank Seion Ghi, who makes ethereal installations resembling shapes and architecture out of black charcoal strung with invisible wire.

“Together, these three artists represent humanity’s longstanding relationship with wood whether through finely-crafted furniture, objects that recall our forest or installations that remind us of the fragility of nature and our responsibility to care for the planet,” the gallery said in a statement.

Contacts

Museum of Arts & Design, 2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019. Tel: 212-299-7777. www.madmuseum.org

Appleton Museum of Art, 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, FL 34470. Tel: 352-291-4455. www.appletonmuseum.org

This article originally appeared in the December 2015 issue.