ARTISTS
Don Porcaro: Lost Stories
Westwood Gallery NYC presents Don Porcaro: Lost Stories, a solo exhibition of recent sculptures. This is Porcaro鈥檚 second solo exhibition with the gallery and includes over 60 sculptures, curated by James Cavello.
For more than four decades, Don Porcaro鈥檚 sculpture has built on his lifelong engagement with ancient sites and civilizations, from Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, Serpent Mound in Ohio, and Mayan ballcourts in Mexico鈥檚 Yucat谩n to the monumental stonework of Sacsayhuam谩n in Cusco, Peru and the complex architectures of Turkey, Chile, and Korea. Rather than replicate their forms, Porcaro seeks to convey an ineffable essence found in these places鈥攖he seamless integration of stone with structure and the enduring sense that history is nonlinear, shifting as civilizations repurpose materials and archaeologists reinterpret their meaning. These ideas converge in the two ongoing series鈥擜rt or Fact and Lost Stories鈥攆eatured in this exhibition and originating after a recent formative trip to Egypt.
Both Art or Fact and Lost Stories emerge from Porcaro鈥檚 interest in the limits of what we know and don鈥檛 know about cultural and material history. In Art or Fact, small, handheld sculptures hover between abstraction and representation. They appear at once familiar and foreign, prompting questions about what future archaeologists might infer about our time if such objects were unearthed centuries from now. As Porcaro reflects, 鈥淭he smallest artifact can tell a story about an entire culture鈥攊ts time, place, history and function.鈥� These stories, however, are not complete; 鈥淚nstead, they invite the viewer to bring their own ideas and interpretations to fore.鈥�
Lost Stories grew from Porcaro鈥檚 encounters in Egypt with its monumental architecture. Egyptian temples often bundled stone columns together to resemble the forms of papyrus reeds, lotus, and palms, vegetation that rises from the Nile鈥攁 life sustaining force to the Egyptian people. Porcaro integrates a five-bundled column into his sculptural language, drawn not only to its formal elegance but to its dual representation of necessity鈥攂oth as physical support and symbolic emblem. The motif unites nature, architecture, and culture, inviting a meditation on monuments as sculptural palimpsests.
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Westwood Gallery NYC presents Don Porcaro: Lost Stories, a solo exhibition of recent sculptures. This is Porcaro鈥檚 second solo exhibition with the gallery and includes over 60 sculptures, curated by James Cavello.
For more than four decades, Don Porcaro鈥檚 sculpture has built on his lifelong engagement with ancient sites and civilizations, from Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, Serpent Mound in Ohio, and Mayan ballcourts in Mexico鈥檚 Yucat谩n to the monumental stonework of Sacsayhuam谩n in Cusco, Peru and the complex architectures of Turkey, Chile, and Korea. Rather than replicate their forms, Porcaro seeks to convey an ineffable essence found in these places鈥攖he seamless integration of stone with structure and the enduring sense that history is nonlinear, shifting as civilizations repurpose materials and archaeologists reinterpret their meaning. These ideas converge in the two ongoing series鈥擜rt or Fact and Lost Stories鈥攆eatured in this exhibition and originating after a recent formative trip to Egypt.
Both Art or Fact and Lost Stories emerge from Porcaro鈥檚 interest in the limits of what we know and don鈥檛 know about cultural and material history. In Art or Fact, small, handheld sculptures hover between abstraction and representation. They appear at once familiar and foreign, prompting questions about what future archaeologists might infer about our time if such objects were unearthed centuries from now. As Porcaro reflects, 鈥淭he smallest artifact can tell a story about an entire culture鈥攊ts time, place, history and function.鈥� These stories, however, are not complete; 鈥淚nstead, they invite the viewer to bring their own ideas and interpretations to fore.鈥�
Lost Stories grew from Porcaro鈥檚 encounters in Egypt with its monumental architecture. Egyptian temples often bundled stone columns together to resemble the forms of papyrus reeds, lotus, and palms, vegetation that rises from the Nile鈥攁 life sustaining force to the Egyptian people. Porcaro integrates a five-bundled column into his sculptural language, drawn not only to its formal elegance but to its dual representation of necessity鈥攂oth as physical support and symbolic emblem. The motif unites nature, architecture, and culture, inviting a meditation on monuments as sculptural palimpsests.
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