Contemporary Steven Derks Upcycled Abstract Iron & Concrete Sculpture

Description

Upcycled scrapyard iron and concrete base sculpture by Tucson artist Steven Derks (b. 1957). This sculpture evokes the sun of … more Upcycled scrapyard iron and concrete base sculpture by Tucson artist Steven Derks (b. 1957). This sculpture evokes the sun of the desert southwest where it was created. Mounted upon a cast concrete base it measures 44 1/2 inches tall and 24 inches wide. The base is tapered concrete measuring 16 1/4 inches tall and 8 inches on each side. The total weight is about 65 pounds of which the base comprises about 50.

Born in Dubuque Iowa June 30, 1957. Steven Derks' art career began in the late 1980s while vacationing in Mexico. Seeking to help a remote Tarahumara tribal cooperative sell their drums in the United States he began decorating the drums with abstract patterns inspired by cultures of the southwestern United States.

Finding and collecting curiosities in thrift stores and junkyards is a lifelong preoccupation and a passionate experience for him, rather like going to church. Most of his sculptures are conceived right there in the scrap metal yards, where he finds both the vision and the ingredients for his work. Liking the immediacy of welding, he never bends or cuts the metal he uses as his art lies in the assemblage, not the cutting and shaping of its individual parts. Making art allows him to have a spiritual and a psychological life without being directly involved in any theology or ideology. When he discards something, he feels he betrays it. When he finds it, conceives a vision of it renewed, and makes art from it, he feels he redeems it.

All objects have the potential to be redeemed through art, to be transformed through human vision and so do all people. Art makes his own personal redemption possible. Part of many private collections, a few of his corporate collectors are the American Heart Association, Tucson, AZ; DeGrazia Foundation, Tucson, AZ; Microsoft, Seattle, WA; Regal Company, Inc., Sonora, Mexico; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; UMC Cancer Center, Tucson, AZ; and he even has works at The White House, Oval Office in Washington, D.C.
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