The majority of the work in this exhibition was made in the early 1970s. The earliest pieces were completed as I finished my BA and MFA degrees at UCLA.

As a BA student, I primarily studied painting. However, I was required to take a sculpture class to graduate. At that time, I never thought that I would become a sculptor. I took that first sculpture class from abstract sculptor, John McCracken. He was very loose about what the students made, so I suggested that I make a rocking horse out of laminated wood blocks. He went on to ask if I knew how, and I said, no. He said that he didn’t know how either, but to go ahead and try. After 3 classes over a total of 9 months, I was so intrigued by the material and the process, that I continued to make sculpture during the rest of my time at UCLA.

Although I eventually received my MFA in painting, I graduated with a refined body of sculpture large enough to have my first exhibition at Rico Mizuno Gallery in 1972.

My second rocking horse from 1971 will be in this SMC show, and I will also be showing several pieces that were completed for my second solo exhibition, which was at Nick Wilder Gallery in 1977. The SMC exhibition plan goes on to include pieces from the mid-1980s when I was working with Koa wood, while in Hawaii.

2. How did you bring together the pieces in the exhibition?

Most of the work is from my own collection, while several pieces are on loan from private collectors, LA Louver gallery, and LACMA.

3. Is there a distinct relationship between your material (wood) and your forms?

During my days at UCLA there was a lot of construction going on around L.A. All of the wood left over from the buildings was strewn about the construction sites. Seeing this, I had the idea of using two-by-fours, and other leftover wood, to make my sculpture. The wood was free; all I needed was glue. The material was either going to be thrown away or burned in someone’s fireplace. In other words, I was making art out of other people’s trash. This process came about naturally; long before the ecology movement became popularized.

The wood blocks related well to organic forms, it was a very natural material to use. While usually enhancing the form, the way the wood was assembled could cause conflict with it as well. I became aware of incorporating the grain. I began to use the direction of the wood grain to help form the sculpture. More importantly, however, using wood blocks made it possible for me to make radical changes in the sculpture when I found it necessary. This gave me the freedom I needed to tackle the sculptural problems I set up for myself.

4. How were these pieces received when you first showed them?

The 1972 exhibition at Riko Mizuno’s was fairly well received critically, and my friends liked it. My work was quite different for what my artist friends in L.A. were doing at the time. During the 70s, I had other exhibitions with wood sculpture, but rarely sold any. Nick Wilder was the only dealer/gallerist able to sell a few; the locations of these pieces are now sadly unknown. In 1978, LACMA did purchase Impala, with their ‘New Talent Purchase Award’.

5. Do you have any favorite pieces in this exhibition?

The Mexican Dog is my favorite piece in the exhibition. The Cheetah is a close second.

6. Your group of Coyotes in this exhibition was completed 10 years after the earliest pieces. Is there any significance to this group?

My interest in figurative sculpture is more about the life and movement of the form as it is held by the surrounding space, rather than it is about the specific details of a certain individual. Though I use photographs while working, I try to stay away from portraiture and pay more attention to the abstract qualities of the form of the animal. When I portray animals in the wild, it is difficult to use one specific animal; I try to sculpt the essence of what I feel about the specific type of animal.

For example, while in Hawaii, where there are no coyotes, working on this group for 2 years, I drew upon recent memories of the animal to retain the spirit, but abstracted the form. I made up their personalities through the depiction of their individual perceived movements and activated the space through the relationship between the sculptures. With this group I became increasingly interested in the relationship of the sculptures to each other, to their negative space, and the space surrounding them. The idea of negative space is important in all my sculpture, and perhaps this is best illustrated in this group.

7. What similarities/connections do you see between the work in the exhibition and your current work?

The sculptures shown in this exhibition are the initial steps in an evolving process. After my beginnings in wood, I became interested in trying other materials. In 1979, I traveled to Italy, as part of the American Academy in Rome, where I carved in marble. During this time, I was also beginning to think about working in bronze.

Around 1984, I received a Guggenheim Fellowship. This grant enabled me to be able to have molds made of the Koa wood coyotes seen in this exhibition. The following year, I received a National Endowment Grant, so I had the 4 coyotes, a hawk, bobcat, and snake cast in bronze. The ability to cast my work in bronze led to greater exposure and increased sales. It also led to my first commission for the Ronald Reagan State Building in 1990.

I continue to sculpt in wood, stone, and ceramic; I have made many of my preparatory sketches or ‘maquettes’ in ceramic throughout the years. At present, I actually do most of my larger work in polyurethane foam, from which I have molds made, and bronzes cast. Therefore, my method, pasting together blocks and carving away material, has not changed a great deal since my first rocking horse.

Gwynn Murrill

July 2009

Gwynn Murrill Bio

Gwynn Murrill’s first solo show was at Rico Mizuno’s Los Angeles gallery in 1972. Since that first exhibition, her process has continually evolved. Gwynn’s initial pieces, sculpted from found wood, which she had laminated into large blocks, gave way to stone and marble carvings in the early 1980s. By 1990, Gwynn was casting most of her pieces in bronze. She has presented over 36 solo shows and has been involved in more than 50 group exhibitions. Much of her more recent work has centered on public art projects and has increasingly incorporated architectural elements.

Gwynn is drawn to animal forms due to their complex beauty. She says:

“My interest lies in the fact that I use the subject as a means to create a form that is abstract and figurative at the same time. It is a challenge to try and take the form that nature makes so well and to derive my own interpretation of it.

I spend many hours perfecting a piece with the goal to utilize all of the negative space surrounding the form as a vehicle for the abstract part of the sculpture. The negative space is as important to my sculpture as the positive space, evoking somewhat of a Yin and Yang relationship.

Many of the animals I work with are also a part of our life here in the American west, and I truly enjoy expressing my appreciation of their existence.”

Over her career, Gwynn has received many accolades: the Guggenheim Fellowship, a Prix di Roma Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome, and a purchase award from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This past June 2009, her latest public commission, for The Montana, in Pasadena, received this year’s Public Art Network Year in Review Award.

Gwynn’s work is held by many private collections and can been seen in number of public commissions throughout the U.S. and across the globe. The American Embassy in Singapore displays one of her Eagles, as does the Target Corporation Headquarters in Minneapolis. The City of Obihiro, Japan installed seven of Gwynn’s Deer along its main thoroughfares in 2003, and Los Angeles’ Grand Hope Park is home to a collection of three coyotes, a hawk, and one snake.

©Gwynn Murrill 2009

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