David Deming: Sculpture

David Deming: Sculpture presents in bronze, steel, and stainless steel, 20 works from the four major series of the artist’s abstract sculpture: Rockers, Tri Pods, Flora Bellas, and Centurions—variations of which have engaged him for more than four decades. Wood-constructed “sketches” and works on paper give further depth to our understanding of David Deming’s exploration of three-dimensional form. His outdoor sculpture, Rocker, installed at the MMA’s Clay Street entrance, introduces visitors to the large-scale public works for which he is best known.

Cleveland-born David Deming grew up in the industrial Midwest of the 1950s and 1960s, where he was attracted to the versatility of metal and its aesthetic possibilities. As a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Cranbrook Academy of Art, his early sculptural pursuits reflected his particular interest in figuration. He was inspired by Henry Moore’s organic figurative sculpture, but also by David Smith’s non-objective steel fabrications with their interplay of geometric forms. In Deming’s sculpture, form and shape relationships evolved into interlocking geometric structures, as well as fluid configurations. These retain the essence of figurative gesture and movement and remain the core of the artist’s creativity today.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.