JOHN OKULICK
John Okulick exhibits April 6 through May 2, 2001 in the Project Space at Nancy Hoffman Gallery. Included in the show are six new wall sculptures, all containers or boxes, made of different kinds of wood and metal. All the boxes are seen in perspective, seeming to be three-dimensional objects. As contemporary trompe l'oeil, illusion has been a leitmotif throughout the artist's oeuvre. The woods are warm and honey-colored or cool and light, spanning a nature-filled palette of golds and browns and pale sand.
In construction and configuration, the sculptures are related to Okulick's works of the '70s, but in content and conception they take a very different path. The new wall sculptures are boxes filled with activity inside; be it fish flies swimming upstream and down, or a diptych of fish flies on one side of the box and sparkling fish hooks on the other. Okulick is interested in the contrast of these materials; wood against the shimmer of fish flies, made of feathers, fur, parts of animals. The materials themselves function on many levels; the hooks are a "lure," a sparkling invitation to approach the piece and yet they are sharp and signify "the catch." Piled one on top of another, they become an abstraction of color, light, reflection and beauty.	John Okulick, STIMULATOR, oak, metal, hooks, hair, feathers, 18 x 18 x 3 inches, 2001
John Okulick, BLACK CRICKET, ramin wood, deerskin, hook, feathers, 18 x 18 x 3 inches, 2001	Most of the objects Okulick includes in his boxes are associated with the water: weights, flies, bugs--the food source for fish. Most of the "bugs" the artist uses live on or around the water, the source of all life. The bugs metamorphose into flies with wings. Flight, water, allure, seduction and the catch are all part of what infuses these small sculptures with energy and delight.
They fool the eye as they draw the viewer in for a closer look. At first the "insides" of the box are merely color, sparkle, shimmer and movement. Up close, the viewer understands what creates the shimmer. Like much of Okulick's work, the true theme of this jewel of an exhibition is the artist's love of the water, the waves, the light and the lure.	John Okulick, SINKER, spanish cedar, lead, hooks, feathers, 17 x 17 x 2 1/2 inches, 2001
John Okulick, BUNKER, cherry wood, deerskins, 18 x 18 x 3 1/2 inches, 2001	Okulick's work has been exhibited widely in this country at the Albuquerque Museum of Art, New Mexico; The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; California Art Center, Pasadena; Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida; Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Honolulu Academy of the Arts, Hawaii; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; The Jewish Museum, San Francisco; Laguna Beach Museum of Art, California; La Jolla Museum of Art, California; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, California; The Oakland Museum, California; Palm Springs Desert Museum, California; Riverside Art Museum, California; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; San Diego Museum of Art, California; The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, among others; and abroad at La Foret Museum, Tokyo and Nagoya City Museum, Nagoya, Japan.
The artist's work is represented in many major public collections, among them The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Memphis Museum of Art, Tennessee; Il Museo delle Ceramiche Grazia, Deruta, Italy; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California; The Oakland Museum, California; Palm Springs Desert Museum, California; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.	John Okulick, ZONKER, walnut, hooks, foam, hair, feathers, 18 x 18 x 3 inches, 2001
John Okulick, BUCKSKIN, pine, stainless steel, aluminum, deerskin, 24 x 25 x 3 inches, 2001	His work has been commissioned for the Chatsworth Metrolink Station, Los Angeles County Transportation Authority, California; Culver City Police Department, California; Homestead Village, Brea, California; Los Angeles Harbor Building, World Port Los Angeles, International Center, San Pedro, California; McCormick Convention Complex Collection, Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, Chicago; Museum of Science and Industry, Los Angeles; City of Reno, Regional Transportation Office and Conference Center, Nevada; The Ronald Reagan State Building, Los Angeles, California; Van Nuys State Office Building, California. John Okulick resides in California. Link to John Okulick's Artist Page Read John Okulick's Biography