About Michael Boroniec
BIOGRAPHY
Michael Boroniec (b. 1983) is a sculptor and designer. Best known for his unique Spatial
Spiral ceramics, these forms began with a single spiral and have evolved into a series of
vessels that vary in form, degree of expansion, and number of coils. Each piece is wheel
thrown then deconstructed. This process reveals aspects of the vessel that most rarely
encounter. Within the walls, maker’s marks become evident and contribute to the texture.
The resultant ribbon effect, reminiscent of a wheel trimming, lends fragility, elegance,
and motion to a medium generally perceived as hard and heavy. This emphasizes a
resistance of gravity, allowing negative space to unravel and become part of the form.
The result is a body of sculptural objects resembling and born of functional vessels.
A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Michael Boroniec has shown in
numerous museums and galleries throughout the United States in both group and solo
exhibitions including the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, Icheon Cerapia in
Gyeonggi-do Province, Korea, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA; Berkshire Museum,
Pittsfield, MA; Boise Art Museum, Idaho; RISD Triennial, Providence, RI, the New York
Ceramics and Glass Fair; National Bohemian Hall, New York; Albany Institute of Art
and History, NY, and the Sculptural Objects Functional Art and Design Fair (SOFA),
Chicago, IL, among others. Michael Boroniec lives and works in Pittsfield, MA.
About Joe Wheaton
ARTIST STATEMENT
Familiar yet strange, beautiful yet menacing, threatening yet delicate. Reaching and solid, my work traverses many contradictions. As in life, beautiful lines have sharp edges, precarious forms balance with great certainty yet are vulnerable to nature’s menacing ways. I am interested in using recognizable materials and relationships in configurations that will serve to re-evaluate how one perceives what might at first seem obvious. Dark forms stand in front of their ever-changing shadows. Lines motion and engage, but are like life, elusive and mysterious.
I have worked for the past 35 years as a metal sculptor. My work refers back to early modernism though I am equally interested in antiquity and art of the moment. I began as a potter interested in early Asian ceramics. I studied printmaking and have done photography for the past 50 years. Over the past 15 years I have been working with a projection layering software, which enables me to use my 70,000 pictures and videos in complex projected installations, which can fill huge spaces, indoor and out. They are often combined with sound to create environments. I am currently making both sculpture and doing projections as well as making two dimensional images taken from the projections.
“Ground; Matter as Form”, a two person exhibition featuring work by sculptors Joe Wheaton and Michael Boroniec. We welcome the public to a reception for the artists, Saturday, October 8 from 5-7pm.
Ground; Matter as Form is a debate that goes back to the great philosophers Aristotle and Plato. Joe and Michael come together under the context that their work explores these concepts in the shape of objects. To define ‘Ground’ in Joe’s work one sees the combined elements, or the compound of steel being bent, twisted, heated, and ground-sometimes to a fine point, the verb. Michael’s works takes a more literal twist being built from earth-or ground, terra, earth, or clay; as a noun.
Matter exists as the periodic elements in which they both create Form. The two bend and twist all of these atomic compounds which result in hand sculpted objects born of the same ground; Earth.
The show runs from October 8 through November 7, 2022, with a reception for the artists, Saturday, October 8 from 5-7pm.
Michael Boroniec, Sodalite, Ceramic, Glaze, 19 ” x 19″ x 1 1/2″, 2022