Gallery Exhibitions
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Urban Totems Werner Glinka works in at least three dimensions. In his newest body of work, “Urban Totems,” his pieces create strong spaces in the physical world, certainly, but they also invoke other, less tangible realms as well. While exploring the dimensionality of surface and shape, Glinka’s work holds the door open for symbol, emotion, culture, sex and spirituality. Some pieces recall Asian influences. Others reference more primitive, native cultures. Still others have the dimension of prayer, or architecture, or magic. All are more than they appear. Driven by instinct, and informed by a highly developed minimalist aesthetic sense of balance and proportion, Glinka’s work is simplicity itself. But simplicity is never simple. Even his materials carry emotional weight: barbed wire, ash, pearls. Werner has always found inspiration at the intersection of man and nature, and the interaction and juxtaposition of the two. But while Urban Totems show his roots in this regard, this new work is more about his branching out into rich new territory beyond pure aesthetics, into the emotional shorthand of symbolism and the power we invest in it.
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Glinka explains that the triggers for this work are as diverse as the work itself, and range from something as ordinary and invisible as an asphalt-filled crack in the street, to the in-your-face complexity and near-chaos of New York City. Like an antenna picking up the news we deem important about why and how we are here, he processes these signals and sends them back out into the world, fulfilling his artist’s role as a feedback loop in an intelligent system. Glinka refuses to title these works, lest he add his own layer of interpretation where none is required. “Once it’s on the wall,” he maintains, “my work is done.” In doing so, he honors the vantage point from which each individual sees his work, while simultaneously creating space for each reaction. As such, Urban Totems are not so much statements as they are invitations. Bring your spirit.
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Contact Werner Glinka at wg@wernerglinka.com See more of Werner's work at www.wernerglinka.com |
