John Bisbee: American Steel

American Steel is the first solo exhibition in Maine of sculptor John Bisbee’s work in nearly a decade. Bisbee, a resident of Brunswick, Maine, is celebrated for his masterful work created exclusively from forged and welded nails, transforming their simple form into sculptures that defy the imagination.

As Glenn Adamson writes in the catalog essay accompanying the exhibition, “We hear a lot these days about the decline of American manufacture. Communities in the so-called ‘rust belt’ are struggling to cope with the rise of robotics, outsourcing to factories abroad, and an overall shift to the digital sector. This upheaval has taken generations to unfold. But it’s now upon us, and is taking a toll in our economy, our politics, and on families across the USA. It is against this backdrop that John Bisbee crafts his sculpture.”

Constructed entirely from nails, by hand, Bisbee’s objects draw on a deep well of American historical and vernacular imagery. They are made in a spirit of solidarity with workers of all kinds; each nail expresses the idea of things joined together. Yet the exhibition also has a critical edge. Bisbee uses poetic language, narrative imagery, and potent emblems to express his concern with our country’s direction. American Steel is thus a statement on current affairs: in his own words, an “abstraction of who are we are, right now.”

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.