The Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts invites you to an evening discussion between sculpture artists Michelle Lopez and Vincent Fecteau on the topic of sculpture, happening in conjunction with our exhibition, STEADY: Michelle Lopez and Ester Partegàs.

Michelle Lopez is known for her rigorous conceptual practice and boldly experimental approach to processes and material. Her installations and sculptural works are grounded in research on the iconography of cultural phenomena. Lopez riffs off of our relationship to “products” by combining forms of Capitalism with contradictory materials, such as her leather- covered car, Boy. Lopez examines historical forms by building abject structures out of minimal debris. Her crumpled aluminum and stainless steel work, Blue Angels, exemplifies a technological failure while also considering the performative element of the artist’s body via sculpture. Her sound and kinetic installation, Halyard, is a further iteration of examining invisible structures of power in relation to Western Empire.

Vincent Fecteau is best known for his modestly sized abstract sculptures, which he makes by hand using papier-mâché, plaster, and clay, as well as such commonplace items as rubber bands, seashells, and string. Their incongruous forms, unnerving color schemes, and often unsettling details are the result of numerous formal decisions made during the sculpting process: “I start with a form, I change that form, I change it again, I change it again. It either looks more like something or less like something. If it goes too close to looking like one thing, I move it away to look like something else.."

6:00-8:00 PM
This event is not taking place inside the Wattis Gallery.