Patrick Marold and public art

This Thursday, November 3, we’ll welcome artist Patrick Marold to the Museum for the first of three public art-related discussions happening this month. Marold will speak at 7 p.m., and his talk is free and open to the public.

Marold is a Denver native and sculptor whose work is influenced by the relationships between people and the environment:

I create sculpture to invite the viewer to realize spatial relationships and a perspective that grows and changes through my compulsive efforts to explore this world deeper. I draw from industry and our habitation creating works that continue to inform myself and those who experience them. I find that I am driven to create works that efficiently and honestly represent the relationships I am interested in. When I am working I am continually learning, and maintaining a sensitivity to that which I am responding, while communicating to others a sense of wonder and exploration (via www.patrickmarold.com).

All of Marold’s works are characterized by simple, pleasing lines and subtle concepts dependent on external phenomena, but with decidedly intentional results. This entails elegant, sweeping, suspended cables emphasizing the internal space of a building; dozens of small windmills installed into a hillside and glowing relative to the wind speed; or smooth, organic shapes influenced directly by the surrounding environment.

He will visit the Museum as a participant in the U.S. General Services Administration’s Art in Architecture Program. Art in Architecture commissions artists, working alongside architecture teams, to create major works of art for new federal building projects, a tradition dating back to the mid-1800s in the United States.

As the City of Fargo looks to build the arts into its ongoing 30-year plan, the interplay of government and art in our community has become an interesting talking point. To what degree should the city be involved in the creation of public art projects? What are some successes to the approach of government involvement in commissioning artists? When we welcome Marold to Plains Art Museum, we’ll also welcome the opportunity to learn more about this timely and important topic. We hope to see you at his talk on Thursday.