May 20, 2015
Living Marble: A Contemporary- Historical Collaboration at the Walters, BmoreArt
Cara Ober, May 18, 2015
The Walters Art Museum is widely known as a house of rare objects of antiquity, but not a place for contemporary art. When Julia Marciari-Alexander became the Director of The Walters Art Museum in 2013, she stated that she would make it a priority for the institution to exhibit works by contemporary and local artists in addition to the art historical objects collected by the Walters family. True to her word, the new exhibit Rinehart’s Studio: Rough Stone to Living Marble features the art of our time alongside those of William Henry Rinehart, but takes this union a step further into a collaboration with a local educational institution . . .
Follow this link to read the full article on BMore Art’s website.
Apr 12, 2015
It’s my great surprise and honor to be sharing ink in Sunday The Baltimore Sun News Paper this morning with, not only #Rinehart & Oprah Winfrey, but fellow Baltimore-boy, Mike Rowe !!! #rad
You can check out the article, Carving Out a Legacy, about the Walters Art Museum show online too by following this link to The Baltimore Sun’s page.
Apr 11, 2015
The Baltimore Sun
April 11, 2015
By Mary Carole McCauley
At a first look and even at a second, you’d swear it was magic.
Those three white towels, two folded neatly and the third rumpled and hanging every which way — surely they’re made of terrycloth and purchased at a department store, not carved from white Carrara marble in a stone quarry by the 34-year-old Baltimore artist Sebastian Martorana.
Those two little boys curled up on a mattress, their heads barely heavy enough to dimple a pillow — surely they’ll wake up any moment from their nap. But that nap, which was carved in stone by the master sculptor William Rinehart, has been going on undisturbed since 1869.
“Rinehart’s Studio: Rough Stone to Living Marble,” the new exhibition running at the Walters Art Museum, makes a strong case for the undiluted trickery that lies at the heart of sculpture’s appeal. It’s the delight of being fooled into believing something to be true that we know in fact is faked. It’s the triumph of our five senses over our better judgment. And the thrill is not unlike the one experienced when we watch a magician put a beautiful lady into a box, saw her in half, wave a wand and then restore her to life.
Rarely has being snookered been so much fun.
In some ways, the 40-object show is about the way that the magic wand (or perhaps, the magic chisel) is being handed down from one generation of artists to the next.
“Rinehart’s Studio” contains about a dozen sculptures, including the one by Martorana, who, like Rinehart, studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art — which in the 19th century was called the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts. . . .
Follow this link to read the full article on The Baltimore Sun.
Jan 15, 2015
HAND/MADE
Opening Reception Friday, February 6th, 5:00 – 8:00pm
MICA’s Decker Gallery, Fox Building, 1301 W Mount Royal Ave, Baltimore, Maryland 21217
Icon: Sam the Eagle, marble, 19 x 12 x 12 in.
Sebastian’s recent work, Icon: Sam the Eagle, will be on display with the tools and models used for it’s creation.
MICA’s Exhibition Development Seminar (EDS) students present HAND / MADE, an art show juxtaposing an original 19th-century marble sculpture by artist and former MICA student William Henry Rinehart with 3-D, performance and video works by contemporary sculptors and interdisciplinary artists. Exhibited in MICA’s Fox Building: Decker Gallery (1303 W. Mount Royal Ave.) from Friday, Jan. 30-Sunday, March 15, HAND / MADE makes vital connections between traditional methods employed by artists working with 19th-century studio artisan teams and collaborative practices in contemporary studios. A reception will take place Friday, Feb. 6, 5-8 p.m.
“HAND / MADE explores how sculptures are seldom the result of a simple transaction between a single artist, an idea and a given medium,” said EDS co-curator and class spokesperson Adenike Adelekan ’15 (art history, theory, and criticism). “The methods and practices that are sometimes used when creating a sculpture can involve multiple people beyond the artist. This can cause tension regarding the complex issue of authorship. Our exhibition aims to investigate this on-going discussion.”
The EDS class will show work from six contemporary artists, all with ties to MICA, of which five have been commissioned for new work. Fiber faculty member Annet Couwenberg,Nancy Daly ’11 (Photographic & Electronic Media), Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture Maren Hassinger, Richard Vosseller ’95 (general fine arts) and Megan Van Wagoner ’00 (Mount Royal School of Art) are creating works that respond to Rinehart’s most reproduced sculpture, Sleeping Children. Each artist has been asked to reflect on the relationship between individual creative expression and artistic collaboration-and what it means when others’ labor is required to realize an artwork. MICA’s own Sleeping Childrenwill be displayed alongside the commissioned pieces, allowing the audience to draw connections from the past to the present. Also on display will be contemporary marble work by Sebastian Martorana ’08 (Rinehart School of Sculpture), with his tools and maquettes (or scale models) to help viewers visualize the traditional carving process.
Jul 1, 2014
Barclay Chess Tables, reclaimed marble
This public art piece is part of the redevelopment project in the Barclay neighborhood. I was contacted by the sculpture department at MICA who was asked by the developer, Telesis Corp, to assist with reincorporating the salvaged marble stoops from the neighborhood back into the project in an artistic way.
Primary in my thought process was allowing this new neighborhood to have a physical and psychological connection to its historic past. These stair treads are once again acting as a location for communal gathering for people of all ages and backgrounds.
The placement of the stone was planned as to allow, for the tallest likely person, while still being usable for the shortest, keeping children in mind. The material and the fact that the checkered game surface is etched directly into the face of the stone means that they are permanent.
Though the timeline did not allow for the most complex of sculptural concepts or structures here, sometimes simple is beautiful. I am very excited to have been able to incorporate this piece of Baltimore’s past into a project for its future.
I have larger and more intricate ideas for art to be included in the next phase of this development, which will include another larger adjacent park. However, I am very pleased that this piece has been positively received by the community so far. I hope that it will continue to be the kind of art piece that serves the aesthetic, cultural and functional needs of the community, becoming a destination that the neighborhood can be proud of.
They are located on Worsley St, between, Barclay St and Greenmount Ave.
Barclay Chess Tables, reclaimed marble
Barclay Chess Tables, reclaimed marble
Barclay Chess Tables, reclaimed marble
