Bragging Rights 2007-08:

MICHAEL BROHMAN

They Are What They Are, a new sculpture exhibition by Instructor Michael Brohman is at the Ironton Studios and Gallery, Denver, through March 8

Ironton Studios and Gallery
3636 Chestnut Place
Denver, CO 80216
Monday thru Friday from 10am to 4pm
Saturday from 12 to 4pm
www.irontonstudios.com
303.297.8626

During the summer of 2007, Michael was an artist is residence at the Jentel Foundation, which is located on a working cattle ranch in Banner, Wyoming. His focus during this time was to utilize materials that are considered lowly or disgusting and elevate them to a higher level of appreciation and understanding. He worked with the materials gathered on the ranch--horse and cow manure, bird’s nests and branches, as well as dead animals from the country roads.

This experience has greatly influenced his current work and is evident in the choices he has made. Many of the works that were begun in Wyoming have been combined with previously started but unfinished pieces. Manure, animal remains, and taxidermy specimens are conjoined with the traditional materials of bronze, iron and steel. The work is at once beautiful and disturbing, as are the themes explored. The scale of the individual pieces ranges from intimate to the monumental.

The title of the show, They Are What They Are, references the fact that Michael does not try to disguise the materials or the subject matter. The physical evidence of the sculptors journey, the mark and touch, is critical to the engagement with the work.  Michael seeks out the very essence of things, while analyzing along the way, the manner in which we perceive them.

Michael has taught sculpture at the University of Colorado Denver for the past twelve years.  He was a 2003 recipient of an Artists Fellowship from the Colorado Council on the Arts.

Information on the exhibition provided by the artist and Ironton Gallery.

Photo above of Hans Rosenwinkel: Clinton T. Sander, photographer and alumnus of UC Denver.