Untitled

Juan Hamilton, who trained as a ceramicist, settled in New Mexico in 1973. Here, he created sculptures in bronze and clay featuring irregular organic, ovoid shapes and forms reminiscent of rocks smoothed over by water and time. This large bronze, with a smooth surface and deep patina, recalls the shape and color of river pebbles, though made monumental. Although he drew inspiration from modernist sculptors including Constantin Brancusi and Jean Arp, Japanese Zen design (visiting Japan in 1970), and the deep geological history of Northern New Mexico, he claimed the forms “come from inside me. I feel them three-dimensionally, in the center of my chest. Some people see things but I feel them.”