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Changing of Seasons by Jesús Nava

Changing of Seasons by Jesús Nava

TITLE: Changing of the Seasons
ARTIST: Jesús Nava
DATE: 2018
MATERIALS: aluminum
DIMENSIONS: 5′ x 5′ (leaf)
TYPE: sculpture

Changing of Seasons (2018) is a collection of 11 aluminum-sheet maple leaves installed at various heights and angles in the new James J. Fritts, DDS Clinical Care Center at the Indiana University School of Dentistry. “I’m trying to bring nature inside the building,” Herron School of Art + Design alumnus Jesús Nava said of this work; “everyone can relate to nature in a way.”

After photographing an idyllic maple leaf, Nava manipulated the image in Photoshop, projected the design onto an aluminum sheet, cut each out with a handsaw, fabricated texture using sandpaper, and then curved them to produce a sense of dynamism.

Changing of Seasons was first installed at IUPUI’s University Library. “When I saw them, I said, ‘I have the perfect place for those’ “ recounted John Hoffman, Assistant Dean of Development for IU’s School of Dentistry, who brought the work to the Dr. Lloyd and Jan Hagedorn Main Street common space, “I knew the silver scheme would match the tones in here. It’s a great enhancement for the area and the building.”

It was also an important enhancement for the career of the artist. “Before John Hoffman reached out, I was taking a break from school and planning on not returning,” Nava revealed. “I didn’t think my work was strong enough, and I didn’t think people appreciated it. He got me to come back to school and finish my career here.”

Torso Fragment by Casey Eskridge

Torso Fragment by Casey Eskridge

TITLE: Torso Fragment
ARTIST: Casey Eskridge
DATE: 2005
MATERIALS: Aluminum
DIMENSIONS: 3′ 2″ x 1′ 8″ x 1′ 6″
TYPE: sculpture


Torso Fragment (2005) is a contemporary take on the contrapposto form, an asymmetrical representation of the human figure that results when weight rests primarily on one leg.

Try it yourself. Put most of your weight on your right leg and notice how it shifts your shoulders and hips. Now, try it with your left leg. Artists often use contrapposto to capture dynamism and nuance in the human form.

While contrapposto can be found in art around the world, it became central to the European sculptural and pictorial repertoire during the Renaissance-perhaps most famously embodied in Michelango’s David (1504). This is the tradition from which Herron alum Casey Eskridge draws.

Eskridge’s figure evokes the fragments of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture that so inspired Renaissance artists. But, looking to the contemporary world, he casts his torso in aluminum—that material so essential to modernity—the fabric of airplanes, automobiles, skyscrapers, and computers

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torso_Fragment,  which includes information created by Herron School of Art and Design and IUPUI Museum Studies faculty and students in 2009 as part of “A Survey of IUPUI Public Art.”

The Herron Arch 1 by James Wille Faust

The Herron Arch 1 by James Wille Faust

TITLE: The Herron Arch 1
ARTIST: James Wille Faust
DATE: 2005
MATERIALS: painted aluminum
DIMENSIONS: 20′ x 7′ x 7′
TYPE: sculpture

The Herron Arch 1 (2005) was the first large-scale sculpture created by James Wille Faust, renowned alumnus of the Herron School of Art and Design.

Composed of over thirty geometrically-shaped pieces of painted aluminum, the work sits at the intersection of sculpture and painting. “Unconcerned about what classification my work fits into, I am free to explore with no limitations and in any direction, style or medium,” states Faust, whose airbrush work has received acclaim.

A lovely conceit of this piece comes from moving around it. From its front or back, it appears black and white. But, as you move around it, you are greeted with a lovely array of prime colors—a reminder that things can surprise you if you give them time and approach them from different angles.

Designed and painted by Faust, the 20 foot tall arch was fabricated by Indianapolis-based Tarpening-Lafollette Company.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Herron_Arch_1, which includes information created by Herron School of Art and Design and IUPUI Museum Studies faculty and students in 2009 as part of “A Survey of IUPUI Public Art.”

Punctuation Spire by William Crutchfield

Punctuation Spire by William Crutchfield

TITLE: Punctuation Spire
ARTIST: William Crutchfield
DATE: 1981
MATERIALS: Wood, steel, aluminum
DIMENSIONS: 28h x 4w feet, 6 feet diameter, 3000 lbs.
TYPE: sculpture


The towering, playful Punctuation Spire (1981) makes full use of the airy space of the Campus Center atrium. Artist William Richard Crutchfield (1932-2015) originally created the 28-foot sculpture for a shopping center in California. It is one in a series of towers that offer tribute to “the symbols of our modern written language.” (The others feature the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0 through 9, and the word “wish.”)

Like the monolithic obelisks of ancient times, Punctuation Spire demonstrates the power of art in place-making. Donated to the Herron School of Art and Design, it installed in the Campus Center in 2010.

Crutchfield was an internationally exhibited artist and Indianapolis native best known for his painting and printmaking. He received his B.F.A. from Herron in 1956.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation_Spire_(Crutchfield), which includes information created by Herron School of Art and Design and IUPUI Museum Studies faculty and students in 2009 as part of “A Survey of IUPUI Public Art.”

Mega-Gem by John Francis Torreano

Mega-Gem by John Francis Torreano

TITLE: Mega-Gem
ARTIST: John Francis Torreano
DATE: 1989
MATERIALS: Welded aluminum
DIMENSIONS: 7′ x 11′ x 7′
TYPE: sculpture

Mega-Gem (1989) has a long history in Indianapolis. Owned by Newfields, but lent to IUPUI, this oversized gemstone featuring three dozen colored metal rosettes, was part of a series completed by John Francis Torreano that played with the idea of the preciousness of art. How do you feel in its presence?

As with precious stones, there is always the question of the value of art. What does playing with scale and composition, as Torreano has done here, achieve with regards to how we think about precious things?

If gems often appear as pure, sparkling adornments that signal wealth and status, is Mega-Gem a kind of jewelry for the body of the campus? And is it meant to do similar work? Torreano (born 1941) is an American artist from Michigan, a clinical professor of studio art at New York University in Abu Dhabi.

Torreano has observed that all art “exists somewhere between a totally abstract creation and a total reproduction of physical things in the world.” In this regard, he describes his own work as “real fake art.”

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega-Gem, which includes information created by Herron School of Art and Design and IUPUI Museum Studies faculty and students in 2009 as part of “A Survey of IUPUI Public Art.”

Antenna Man by Eric Nordgulen

Antenna Man by Eric Nordgulen

TITLE: Antenna Man
ARTIST: Eric Nordgulen
DATE: 1998
MATERIALS: Aluminum
DIMENSIONS: 11′ x 13′
TYPE: sculpture

Eric Nordgulen, Professor at the Herron School of Art and Design, created Antenna Man (1998) as part of an antenna-inspired series.

The piece is composed of twenty-one curved horizontal bars stacked on a pair of vertical supports rendering a figure that appears part human, part machine, inviting us to wonder where the one ends and the other begins.

If “the perception of sculpture is a physical experience that can become a catalyst for new thoughts and ideas,” as Nordgulen suggests, then what does Antenna Man offer us?

Antennas are machines designed to transmit and receive. As beings increasingly accompanied and augmented by technology, what are we now capable and incapable of transmitting and receiving? What effect might these capacities and incapacities have on our futures as a species?

Nordgulen’s work can be found throughout the country. In Indianapolis, you can see Viewfinders on Massachusetts Avenue and another Antenna Man in Crown Hill Cemetery.

To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antenna_Man_(Nordgulen) , which includes information created by Herron School of Art and Design and IUPUI Museum Studies faculty and students in 2009 as part of “A Survey of IUPUI Public Art.”