JAMES WELTY
RESUME | SCULPTURAL WORK | PEOPLE
James Welty is an artist.
He is a sculptor of large metal and copper constructions, and an animator of ideas and sonic landscapes. His recent animation work has captured the lyrical quality of the sounds of architectural spaces and places. This work, with his partner Karen Van Lengen, has been exhibited and collected by major national institutions.
Welty began his career as a collaborator with Frank Stella. As ‘Master Printer’ from 1975- 1987, he developed several printing projects including the famed “Moby Dick” series. During this period, he also developed his own body of sculptural work that received high acclaim. His large format copper wall sculptures, represented by the John Davis Gallery in New York City, led to a significant retrospective exhibition at the University of Virginia Bayly Art Museum in 2004.
Jill Hartz, the museum director wrote:
“Although Welty’s pieces are immobile they seem merely caught in the act of
movement or transformation, a quality that points back to his costume and set
designs with Joann Jansen Dance Co. at the Kitchen in New York City, and with the Dan
Wagoner Dance Company, as well as his ten-year history of architectural installations’.
His essayist, Jean-Noel Herlin, referred to his works as:
“teeming with intimation of life forms, functions and situations, while the alternation
of outer and inner spaces confers to their visual polyphony an air of mystery”.
Welty was born and raised in Chicago and received his BA from University of Rochester. He also attended the Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford University, England.