atelier gallery soho jozef sumichrast

Solid Expressions

Sumichrast's artwork inhabits the curious shared space between that which has two dimensions and that which has three. His renderings of familiar figures and forms can be described as having been flattened, or stretched - but then there's more to it than that. Art historian Adrienne Golub, writing in Art Papers, remarks that "where others see corners, Jozef Sumichrast sees around them." His vision of three-dimensional space is one in which all the rules are bent.

"Wall Rabbit", the artist's most ambitious work to date, originally appeared to Sumichrast as a waking dream . Thus, as with his other sculpture, this massive piece evokes the feeling of having stepped through the looking glass into a place that is both strange and strangely familiar.

Sumichrast's sculpture is created from industrial laminated cardboard, "a lowly material, elevated," says Jozef, "to velvet" through a unique process. The strong but relatively lightweight sanded cardboard forms are covered with a plasticwood medium, in which the sculptures take their final shape. Repeated shellacking, wet-sanding and waxing further refine the shapes and give Sumichrast's sculpture its wonderful surface quality. Museum-quality, limited editions bronzes are cast from selected pieces.

Works by Sumichrast have been displayed at the United Nations in New York, the Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Art Institute in Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S. and Europe. He has won several prestigious wards.

Atelier Gallery is located in Soho at Broadway, #308 (212-431-0630); hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6:00 p.m.