Changing Space: Contemporary Women Sculptors
Panel Discussion with Janet Echelman, Ann Sperry, and Barbara Zucker

Tuesday, March 25, 2002 at 7:00 pm
Admission free, photo ID required for entrance

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
One West 4th Street (between Broadway and Mercer Street)
New York City

Janet Echelman, Ann Sperry, and Barbara Zucker, three accomplished Jewish sculptors, will discuss their work, their distinct styles, and aesthetic approaches. The evening will introduce the range of each sculptor’s work and include an engaging discussion of process, opportunities, and future projects.

Ann Sperry, in her use of re-cycled iron and steel farm equipment parts, has created an idiosyncratic vocabulary that refers to physical nature as well as the nature of space. Janet Echelman works in fiber to create monumental sculptures in public spaces. Barbara Zucker uses a wide range of materials, some ‘found’, many ‘re-visioned.’ A diverse, humorous strain imbues her largely minimalist work. The works of all three of these artists surpass our assumptions about gender, age, and religion.

Curator Laura Kruger explains, “Sculpture, of all the fine arts forms, offers the broadest range of material options: bronze, iron, steel, gold, titanium, silver, stone, marble, wood, fiber, rubber, plaster, clay, and more. The list is endless and it contributes to the direction a sculptor’s work takes. Sculpture absorbs a volume of space and is not a lightly considered enterprise.”

This program is offered in conjunction with Thirty Pieces/Thirty Years: Sculpture by Ann Sperry, a major retrospective exhibition of works by sculptor Ann Sperry, on view at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum through June 26, 2003. The presentation explores the relationship between the artist’s feminism, her innovative technique in welded steel, and her Jewish identity and heritage.

For further information, please call Sarah Schriever at 212-824-2293 or e-mail sschriever@huc.edu.