Professor Emeritus Joe Slusky is on exhibit at Stanford Art Spaces.  His exhibit, Steel Dreams, features eight painted sculptures that derive from the abstract painting pioneered by Wassily Kandinsky and the welded–metal tradition begun by Julio Gonzalez. They have a host of other influences, though, including the car culture of Southern California, where the artist grew up, and  “metal, dinky toy cars, military vehicles, and British hand-painted lead soldiers.”

Slusky scavenges scrap metal and combines the pieces without sketches or preconceptions, open to improvisation and inspiration: “The sculptures are an exploration of the subconscious, the infinite interior. My work is a depiction, delineation or mapping of this interior universe. Within us, structures exist, waiting to be excavated and revealed. The sculptures are like fossils—the imagination fossilized… The titles of the pieces, many of which come from geographical place names, reflect the belief that each work is symbolic of a new place traveled to and discovered.” The spatial dynamism of the complex forms, which seem animated and sentient, is accentuated by the exuberantly complex color patterns that cover every surface. One critic called his work “both monumental and impish”; another said, “The precision of his technique is matched by the hilarity of his compositions.” 

There will be a reception for the artists in the ground-floor atrium of the David W. Packard Electrical Engineering Building.

Parking at all university lots and structures is free after 4:00.