Artist Talk – John Foster

Join artist John Foster, Director Cassie Garner and moderator Jade Patrick for an intimate conversation and a look into the mind of that created our latest exhibition Shimmer. Foster combines color, light, space into sculptural synergy forming art objects ranging from radiant house plants and wall pieces to furniture. Fine Art and Quantum Theory intersect in the process he describes as “inter-dimensional quilting.” Sculpted peaks and valleys of light represent a collaboration between strength and failure. Shimmer seeks to bridge the distance between the viewers and the objects.

Foster, premiered selections from his new work, the Chromaflora Botanical Collection, as well as the first series of hand-formed dichroic aluminum paintings that make up the Empyrean Corrugation. Though featuring his latest work, Foster won’t let down his long-time fans; Shimmer includes many of his classic kaleidoscopic polyhedra, the iridescent geometric aesthetic that has earned John worldwide recognition.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Materials geek John L Foster employs various formal and situational strategies to create what can best be described as beautiful moments. Born in Los Gatos, California, John’s fascination with color and light began early, when he was diagnosed with a condition that causes severe bone pain. The limited physical mobility this resulted in inspired John to create movement and relationships with materials, combining the effects of light, color, geometry, and physics. Foster’s work evolved into creating and documenting actual objects that allow us to glimpse a glimmer of the infinite that lies beyond the future.

In 2015, Banksy tweeted an image of the Sparkle Palace Cocktail Table, captioned “Am I the only one the thinks this is beautiful?” John has had his work published in several major periodicals, including Cosmopolitan Germany, Vogue Brazil, Juxtapoz, and Hi Fructose Magazine. His work is in private collections around the world, including the Interstellar Sparkle Table commissioned by Zedd, which was cited in Architectural Digest. In 2017, John’s sculpture, Truth Ore, was featured in the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival in the United Arab Emirates.

John works with artists to cultivate a culture of skill sharing, community building, artistic growth, and the spaces in which this occurs. He conducts participatory workshops, most recently, a weeklong project in Black Rock City in which he collected MOOP (matter out of place) and employed adaptive reuse techniques to make the Chromaflora Cyborg Botanical series. He’s currently based building a makerspace in Iowa City to host residencies and offer sanctuary for other working artists.