Joel Perlman learned to weld by taking off-campus adult education classes while pursuing a BFA degree at Cornell University. He has an MA degree from the University of California, Berkley and has been an instructor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City since 1973. His sculptures have been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions including those at the Whitney Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. His public commissions can be seen across the United States, in London, and at the Hara Open-Air Museum in Japan.
The circle, largely absent in Joel Perlman’s early work, emerged in the mid 1990s with a request to “work some Olympic rings into his sculpture” by Charles Moore, Director of Athletics at Cornell University during negotiations around a commission to create a sculpture honoring a former Cornell coach and president of the United States Olympic Committee. Perlman felt the circle was a perfect form unto itself and resisted the request though began to investigate the idea in conjunction with the angular totems he had made through the 1970s and 80s. The resulting sculpture, Dynamis, 1996, was aptly titled for it’s energy, thrust, and grace and ultimately pushed Perlman toward a new dynamic. From this moment the circle played an increasing role in his sculpture which culminated in an ongoing series of “wheel” sculptures of which Gray Hanger is one.
Simultaneously implicative of robust industrial machinery and delicate clockworks, Perlman’s wheel sculptures do not describe any particular machine but evoke the spirit of machinery itself. Through dynamic tilting, weaving, and deviations from two-dimensionality he manages to put in motion one of the most stable forms in nature.
Initially constructed in Styrofoam, Perlman cuts and grinds away the excess to create the desired composition. The final form is then encased in a ceramic shell and the core of Styrofoam is burned out. When poured in bronze the cavity becomes a unique sculpture as the mold is also lost in the process. Grey Hangar was cast in Long Island under Perlman’s supervision and comes to us directly from the artist.