movement birth_place training awards nationality field birth_date article_title name bgcolour
contemporary art minneapolis , minnesota minneapolis -lrb- 1993 -rrb- college of art and design - bfa degree 2010 - minnesota state arts board fellowship 1997 - jerome foundation - travel and study grant mcknight artist fellowship for visual artists 1998 us american sculpture , printmaking 1971 aaron spangler
 aaron spangler # 6495ed
aaron spangler

aaron spangler -lrb- born 1971 , minneapolis , minnesota -rrb- is a sculptor and printmaker who lives and works in park rapids , minnesota .
he attended the minneapolis college of art and design , earning his bfa degree in 1993 .
he is represented by zieher smith & horton , in new york city .
spangler 's sculptures typically consist of carved solid blocks of basswood that are finished with coats of black gesso and graphite .
spangler carves his sculptures using mallets , chisels , and a dremel-style rotary tool .
ken johnson commented that , '' `` you do n't see much wood carving in elite chelsea galleries .
an antiquated craft with little relevance to modern technologies of communication or to a competitive , fast-paced contemporary art market ... so it is exciting to come upon the large , intricate reliefs '' .
spangler works three-dimensionally and in bas-relief , a challenging and intricate medium .
his work is often concerned with `` war 's devastation and its potential as a metaphor for psychological conflict '' as well as `` anarchy in rural america '' .
his sculptures seek to envision a `` fascinating and frightening revolution against passive consumerism ` of the people , by the people ' '' multi-faceted , his work reveals more upon second and third glances ; shifting scale and perspective propelling the viewer deeper into the psyche of the piece , leading one critic to claim that spangler piled `` images and motifs , just like ancient romans heaped up captured armor and weapons as trophies '' .
spangler has transformed `` a marginalized craft typically associated with bearded , plaid-shirted gentlemen of a certain age into a conduit for the mythology of the midwest without diminishing its tactility or symbolic richness '' .
