July 18 through October 10, 2002
Ann Weber: Balancing Acts
Gallery 555
555 12th Street, Oakland, CA
Lobby. Hours 7am - 6pm.
located in downtown Oakland
Open and free to the public. BART, AC Transit and Wheelchair accessible.

Presented by the Oakland Museum of California Professional Services division

Slow Life, 1999, cardboard, staples, polyurethane, 5 x 6 x 8'

Ann Weber began her career as an artist some 30 years ago while taking a class in ceramics. In working with clay, she explored the possibilities of transforming elemental materials into solid shapes. After moving from New York to California, she received her Masters degree at the California College of Arts and Crafts where she studied under the tutelage of Oakland ceramic sculptors Viola Frey and Art Nelson.

While Weber remained passionate about ceramics, she ultimately sought relief from the cumbersome process of working with clay and the weight of large-scale clay forms. In 1991, she discovered cardboard, a light but substantial material that proved to be a perfect medium for the towering forms she wanted to create. Inspired by Frank Gehry’s cardboard furniture, Weber delighted in the infinite possibilities of this everyday material.

Today, cardboard remains Weber’s medium of choice. She finds her materials in dumpsters and flattened behind the backs of grocery stores. Armed with only a staple gun, a box of staples and polyurethane, Weber interlaces flat strips together into hollow objects and then coats the surfaces. The weighty presence of her sculptures suggests Weber’s intimate understanding of her medium’s restorative properties as well as her aplomb in transforming a flat, commonplace material into a voluminous form.

Coupling, 1999, charcoal, pigment, glue on paper, 60" x 42"

Based primarily on the circle and the cylinder, Weber’s pared down sculptures are produced using the most elemental shapes. They are “symbols of life, male and female, and the origin of all forms in nature,” says Weber. Along with geometric elements, her vigorous handling of the material supports the primal intent of her work. She pushes the medium to see how far it can go, how high it can reach, before collapsing. By stretching the limits of the material’s fortitude, she examines the boundaries of life’s situations and the balancing acts that define our lives.