BRATTLEBORO — Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts, 183 Main St., will host an opening reception for sculptor Bruce Campbell's “Thinking the Cosmos: Kinetic Sculpture” on Saturday, May 12, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., with an Artist Talk scheduled for Saturday, June 9, at 5:30 p.m.
Campbell graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA in printmaking and received an MFA from Indiana University. In the early 1970s, he began designing books and manuscripts, and soon began specializing in the design of art museum books and catalogues.
For 30 years, his clients included The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, The Peabody Museum, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others.
In 1976, Campbell was fascinated by the Whitney Museum retrospective exhibition, “Calder's Universe,” which invited Campbell to experiment with wires joined and twisted into imaginative shapes, suggesting an art form that defines and controls space through three-dimensional line drawing.
“My ideas for kinetic sculpture usually begin as a question,” he says in a news release. “For example, how can I show a certain concept of the universe? They attempt to illustrate, in the simplest way possible, conditions and events of the natural world. In showing a falling star, a lunar eclipse, or a rainstorm, I am trying to represent, in minimalist and transparent form, my perception of the universe - how the universe might be visualized if moved by gears, levers, and basic mechanics.”
Visually stunning and interactively entertaining, Campbell's kinetic sculptures illuminate/illustrate the dynamic relationships of phenomenal elements in the natural and celestial world, bridging physics, mechanics, and aesthetics.