Nick Renshaw - Visual Artist

This series of sculptures was developed during a period as artist in residence at the Northern Clay Center (NCC) in Minneapolis. The works were made during a three month period at the beginning of 2007 and brought together formal, conceptual, and aesthetic concerns which had been present as themes prior to this period with ideas and influences which were advanced specifically by the particular nature and characteristics of the location in which the NCC is situated. A seemingly massive, almost primitive, monolithic figurative form was initially modelled and subsequently mold manufactured to serve as the ground onto which all manner of formal additions, alterations, colour, and surface treatments are brought. As if this static image of a person were the canvas onto which specific influence becomes visualised. Though beginning ostensibly as the same character each figure has evolved a different personality. These works were exhibited subsequently in the NCC galleries at the conclusion of the period in residence in the exhibition 5 McKnight Artists. This period in residence was made possible by the generous support of the McKnight Foundation.