Yoram Wolberger, TROPHY #2 (Baseball), 2017; Cast and Polished Stainless Steel; 78 x 36 x 36 inches (approximate dimensions); Edition of 3 (+ 2 Artist Proofs) – Price Upon Request
Mark Moore Fine Art is pleased to announce the release of a new major sculpture work by MMFA artist YORAM WOLBERGER on September 7, 2017.
Yoram Wolberger uses childhood toys and everyday domestic items to create his large scale sculptures, foregrounding the latent symbolism and cultural paradigms of these objects that so subtly inform Western culture. By enlarging this ephemera to life size, Wolberger emphasizes the distortions of their original manufacture disallowing any real illusion and conceptually forcing the viewer to reconsider their meanings. When enlarged beyond any possibility of dismissal, we see that toy soldiers create lines between Us and Them, plastic cowboys and Indians marginalize and stereotype the Other, even wedding cake bride and groom figurines dictate our expected gender roles.
The artist has just finished a major new work in his series of TROPHY TOPPER sculptures that he began in 2008. Please note that Edition 1/3 and 2/3 have already been sold in each of these editions. The artist still has one example that remains available in the edition of three, as does one Artist Proof.
As the artist states:
My art manipulates and challenges our perceptions of the familiar through a variety of sculptural interventions. I often choose to work with everyday, culturally iconic, objects to which we attach deep-seated and often unconscious meanings. Transformed beyond their expected context, these evolved objects suggest new associations and provoke fresh insights into their larger meaning and relevance.
For this project, I am interested in examining the contrast between the symbolic and the material dimensions of what I refer to as “common sports trophies”. Specifically, these are the small silver or gold-colored figurines typically awarded in recreational sport. With their idealized figures, such trophies are awarded to represent essential qualities of greatness in a participant. As cultural artifacts, however, our common trophies epitomize values that are intrinsic not only to sport, but to American society and community as well.
In the archaeology of American cultural artifacts, common sports trophies are fitting symbols of personal achievement within a democratic society. Cast from non-precious materials to shine like silver and gold, they are at once common objects and personal treasures. Originally reserved for champions, they are now often awarded to recreational players in honor of a variety of achievements other than victory, including participation.
My intention is to design and construct life-size figurines, standing between 6 and 8 feet tall and meticulously replicating the smaller versions found on common sports trophies. Fabricated from stainless steel casts and polished to a chrome-like finish, they will magnify the humble grandeur of the familiar shiny figurines while exposing the typical casting seams, mass-production flaws and design shortcuts that normally escape our attention. Enlarged 20 times beyond their original size, the trophies’ imperfections become relevant and, it is my hope, intriguing.
For some, the sculptures will evoke personal memories, inspiring moments and achievements. For some, they will stand as noble monuments of the American Dream. And for others still, the contrast between the figures’ idealized poses and their structural imperfections, will provoke deeper contemplation of our cultures values of competition, achievement and the risks that accompany the rise to fame.
Yoram Wolberger (b. 1963, Tel Aviv, Israel) earned his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute’s (CA) New Genres Department. He has had solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and has been featured in group exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (NY), deCordova Sculpture Park (MA), the Aldrich Contemporary Museum (CT), Orange County Museum of Art (CA), Museum of Contemporary Art (IL) and the Israeli Museum of Modern Art (Israel) among others. His works have been acquired for the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art (NY), Frederick R. Weisman Foundation (CA), the Orange County Museum of Art (CA), Sweeney Art Gallery, University of California Riverside (CA) and the McNay Art Museum (TX). The artist lives and works in San Francisco, CA.
For more information on this upcoming release and availability, please contact Mark Moore at: mark@markmoorefineart.com
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