Chakaia Booker, Best known for her use of rubber tires in her sculptures, Chakaia Booker began using her trademark material in the mid-1990’s.  Since then Ms. Booker has recycled countless tires into highly expressive sculptures on both modest and monumental scales that address art historical references as well as environmental issues related to the automobile and recycling.  The artist received her BA in sociology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, and her MFA at The City College of New York.  A resident of New York City since 1979, Ms. Booker has been commissioned to create new works for the Queens Museum of Art, the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, NY, Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, NY, the NASA Art Program in Washington, D.C., the Abington Art Center Sculpture Garden in Jenkintown, PA and the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, MO.  She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award in 1997. 

John Clement, A Brooklyn-based sculptor who was born in Philadelphia, John Clement received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.  After studying at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Clement began working professionally under the tutelage of internationally recognized sculptor Mark di Suvero.  Clement later served as an apprentice to another luminary sculptor, John Henry.  In 2005, Clement was inducted into the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale, an exhibit featuring other artists of international renown.  Clement’s work has been exhibited in public art installations in West Hollywood, California; Macon, GA; Bridgepart, CT; Lakeland, FL; Pittsfield, MA; and at the Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ.  John Clement’s work as been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at the Buschlen Mowatt Fine Arts Gallery in Palm Desert, CA; Tricia Collins Contemporary Art, NYC; Triangle Art Workshop in NYC; the Pier Walk in Chicago, IL; and Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, NY.  Clement’s colorfully painted works are constructed from welded, bent, and rolled steel pipe.  The graceful, curvilinear works are infused with a lightness that challenges the inherent properties of the steel itself.

Joel Graesser, born in Fort Wayne, Indiana and spent his formative years in America’s industrial heartland.  He received his undergraduate degree from the Kansas City Art Institute and completed his graduate studies at Northern Illinois University.  Shortly after completing his studies, the artist was invited to become an Artist-in-Residence at Galerie Kremer in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.  The residency led to a solo exhibition at the Museum Gelsenkirchen-Buer.  Mr. Graesser has received numerous awards, pblic and private commissions, and has been the sole U.S. representativeds in over twenty international sculpture symposia.  His works are on permanent public exhibition in eleven countries including the Puustelli Art Center in Kemijarvi, Finland; Museum Gelsenkirchen, Gelsenkirchen-Buer, Germany; City of Resistencia, Chaco, Argentina; City of Joyer, Denmark and City of Cuautitlan Izcalli, Mexico.  Mr. Graesser works in stainless steel, wood, concrete, ice and snow.  His use of geometry, steel and space has strong links to the work of David Smith, Alexander Calder and Mark di Suvero, as well as early 20th century artists Naum Gabo and Aleksandr Rodchenko.  The artist maintains a studio in Hyder, Alaska.

Claes Hake, Claes Hake is a Swedish-born sculptor who maintains studios in Goteborg, Sweden and New York, NY.  His work is represented in Sweden in the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Goteborgs Konstmuseum, and in the museums of Norrkopings, Boras, Sundsvalls, Skissemass, Skovde, Umea and Vasterasas.  The artist has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Scandinavia, Europe and has also participated in group exhibitions at Connecticut Sculpture Park,  Pierwalk 98, Saratoga Sculpture Park and The Chicago Atheneum.  Mr. Hake is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award as well as numerous awards in his native country of Sweden.  Mr. Hake works in a variety of media, including stone, steel and paper.

Peter Lundberg, Sculptor and curator Peter Lundberg is widely acclaimed for his monumental cast concrete sculptures.  The artists’ sculptures have been exhibited at Storm King Art Center, Grounds for Sculpture and at the entrance to the George Washington Bridge.  Lundberg has worked throughout Europe since early studies in Berlin and currently has shows in Hannover, Germany and Vevring, Norway.  Mr. Lundberg is also respected for his leadership in bringing sculpture to the public—his initiative and energy have resulted in the establishment of many new sculpture parks.  In particular, he is known for his development of the Connecticut Sculpture Park at Seaside Park in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which contains a collection of 40 sculptures by more than twenty-five renowned artists from ten countries.  Sculpture parks in Sweden, Germany, Philadephia and Saratoga Springs were founded by Lundberg.    Mr. Lundberg received a B.A. in Mathematics from Skidmore College and a MFA in Sculpture from Bennington College.  He resides and maintains studios in Dusseldorf, Germany and Hubbardton, Vermont.

Michael Manjarris, Curator Michael Manjarris is also an acclaimed sculptor who lives and works in Houston, TX and who has studied in Ireland, Cuba, Spain, Mexico, and Italy.  Whether working in limestone, rope, clay, dirt, glass, cotton or found materials, the artist makes geometric constructions of classical elegance that are related to human scale.  Mr. Manjarris has exhibited his work at the New Gallery in Houston, TX; at the Bayfront Arts and Sciences Park in Corpus Christi, TX; The Jones Center for Contemporary Art in Austin, TX; the Center for Contemporary Arts of Virginia in Virginia Beach, VA; the Audubon Park Sculpture Garden in New Orleans, LA; and in Meditation Park at the Beeville Art Museum in Beeville, TX, among other venues.  Manjarris has also served as a curator for several outdoor locations, including an exhibition called “Contemporary Outdoor Sculpture in Meditation Park,” organized in 2002 for the Beeville Art Museum in Beeville, TX.

Deborah Masters, Deborah Masters studied art history at Bryn Mawr.  She was inspired and influenced by the art and architecture of Rome, where she lived and worked for two years in the late 1970’s, and by the native art of Mexico and Greece. The details of her mainly female groupings of figures are drawn from a wide range of art-historical precedents.  The artist is best known for her work “Walking New York,” a narrative relief of 28 panels, each 8-1/2 feet high by 10 feet wide that greets passengers with vibrant scenes of New York life. The JFK wall relief was cited as the best public art project of 2001 by the Municipal Art Society.  Ms. Masters has shown her work in the Whitney Museum at Phillip Morris and in one-person shows at Smack Mellon Gallery, in Brooklyn, NY; LedisFlam Gallery in NYC; the Queens Museum in Flushing, NY; among others.  She has received commissions to create public works for the Long Island University Sculpture Garden in Brooklyn, NY; the California State University at Chico and Long Beach, CA; and in locations including Nantucket, MA; Harrisburg, PA; Saratoga, NY and other locations across the country.

Edward Walsh, a Rockland County sculptor, began studying at the Art Students League in New York during High School and then went on to study at Montclair State College in New Jersey and New York University. The most valuable part of Walsh's training came during his late twenties, when he spent six months in Italy, living at the center of Italian sculpture, and learning to work its classic stone -- marble. Another valuable learning experience emerged in his apprenticeship to Manuel Carbonell . Carbonell is one of the Romantic Cuban sculptors of his time, "a real Renaissance man." Mr. Walsh has been an Instructor at the Art Students League, Vytlacil Campus since 2005. His works have been on exhibition at many galleries and parks, including. Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park, MA, Pomona Cultural Center, Pomona, N.Y. Nexus Gallery, 57th St., N.Y.C - 2004 and Flywheel Gallery, Piermont, NY. Walsh's art is wrought in the technical mastery of a form both rugged and delicate. The sculptor's engagement with everything from Styrofoam to marble indicates a broad ecology of talents and insights produced with a journeyman's excellence.