PAST PROJECT

Robin Griffiths

Robin Griffiths is a sculptor and professor of Art and Math at Miami Dade College's Kendall Campus. Born in Long Island, New York, Griffiths has lived and worked in South Florida since the 1960s. A voracious collector of objects and curios, his home and outdoor studio is packed with all kinds of visual goodies along with highly specialized tools that he employs in creating his works. Griffiths says of his process, "I love to sculpt. I find that when a sculpture that I have made with my own hands and eyes and tools and materials and shop, all comes together, I am most happy. The process of that creation is left evident in my finished pieces. The origins of the materials remain for comparison to the final finish. Visually compelling, the juxtaposition of rough beginnings beside high polish also lends a sense of danger, with jagged, sharp and pointy beside smooth, delicate and inviting." Griffiths materials are the found objects he has collected for decades. These objects come together to form a sense of their selector, the sensibility of the chooser, and as so become autobiographical. Amongst other works in this exhibition is 'The Gate of Keys & Stone/The Gate of Power and Light'. It is a large, heavy sculpture that Griffiths created this summer for the show. He describes the work as a front to back diptych, brimming with objects on the one side and sleek and minimal on the other. The 'Gates' is a series of large-scale sculptures that Griffiths has been working on for years. The works in this show are a continuing exploration into that metaphor.

Tin Ly

Born in Vietnam, Tin Ly is a painter, sculptor, and art conservator working and living in South Florida for over 25 years. Works included in this exhibition are his paintings on paper and his maquettes. Ly's paintings are explorations of form and color, which tend towards both the organic and sculptural. Indeed, these paintings are the portal through which he discovers the forms for his sculpture. Ly begins his exploration with drawings from nature. These organic forms then become essential elements that are reorganized in his paintings in which the variables are explored in consideration of a 3 dimensional outcome. Beyond studies for sculpture, these works on paper are fully considered paintings in their own right. Ly says, "I have been combining painting with sculpture for the past twenty years, negotiating a precarious balance between these two divergent media. To fuse seamlessly the painted imageries with the sculptural forms has become my obsession." Ly has received many awards and honors, including the South Florida Cultural Consortium in 1990 and 1999, the Individual Artist Fellowship from the Florida Arts Council in 1986 and 1994, and The Moretti Award for Artistic Achievement from the cultural Foundation of Broward amongst others. Currently, he serves as Conservation Manager for the Broward County Public Art and Design Program while he maintains a studio and gallery in the Third Avenue Art District in Fort Lauderdale.