MARSHALL, ILL. — Nationally renowned sculptor Bill Wolfe will be the featured artist at the Gaslight Art Colony’s fourth Premier Night from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at 516 Archer Ave. in Marshall.
Wolfe is a native Hoosier whose art career spans painting, multimedia, murals, design and especially bronze sculpture. He specializes in portrait-style sculptures that capture the spirit of historical and public figures. These frequently life-size or larger-than-life-size bronze sculptures embody more than realism. They often serve as an embodiment of the subject’s fundamental nature. Examples of this exist in Wolfe’s interpretation of Orville Wright’s inventive and imaginative nature, the unflappable determination of Hall of Fame baseball player Max Carey, and the inexhaustible fortitude of Abraham Lincoln.
While Wolfe has recently dedicated several veterans monuments that portray soldiers’ care and concern for others, his achievements in painting are not to be overlooked. Similar to his sculptures, his artwork tends to capture a quiet, if not introspective, moment of time – however brief. These paintings bring a Midwestern sensibility and offer a snapshot of reprieve from tumult. Both his sculptures and paintings leave a sublime footprint that echoes of wisdom, reverence and subtle hope that is becoming an increasingly important legacy.
This past May, Bill was honored by Arts Illiana, his peers and the Wabash Valley with a 2009 Bravo Award for Professional Artist. Wolfe’s 2009-10 season has been an extraordinarily busy one, with his restoration of the Gilbert Wilson Murals at University Hall, newly renovated home of Indiana State University’s Bayh College of Education, a bronze monument in Virginia, a life-size bronze of Abraham Lincoln in honor of the 200th birthday of the late president in Illinois, new murals at the Vigo County Courthouse, three new statues in Indianapolis, and his selection as the artist for the upcoming Max Ehrmann sculpture in downtown Terre Haute.
For more information, contact Theresa Stone, Gaslight Art Colony, at (217) 826-5914 or stonetheresa@msn.com.
