The Market + Branch public art commission has hit another milestone. We are pleased to announce the selection of four artists as finalists for the project who will be visiting Greensboro in November and December as a part of the interview process.
The Market + Branch commission will be prominently located on the Western Branch section of the Downtown Greenway. The site for the sculpture is adjacent to the trail that is currently under construction as it travels along an abandoned railroad line and crosses West Market Street. The highly visible site provides an excellent opportunity to transform this well-travelled route into downtown. The addition of a dynamic public artwork will serve as a visual welcome to visitors enroute to our city’s center, as well as to the users of the Downtown Greenway.
Each of the four finalists will offer a public art talk to share their previous works. Presented in partnership with The Greensboro History Museum, the schedule is as follows:
- November 14 @ 5:30 Christopher Fennell
- November 21 @ 5:30 Christopher Weed
- December 5 @ 5:30 Pete Beeman
- December 12 @ 5:30 Adam Buente
All are welcome to attend. If you plan to attend any one or multiple artist talks, please RSVP (although not required), to help us in our planning efforts.
Artist Christopher Fennell builds structural skeletons from discarded or found objects. The materials he chooses have been cast out or devalued by society and so his selections are based on the kind of message or impact each piece should convey. This is how a demolished barn can become a wave, broken bicycles transform into a tornado, and downed trees can be given a second life as a pillar of fire.
Chris’s creative inspiration comes from two places: engineering and art. His background in engineering provides a singular understanding of how the materials can be formed, shaped and connected into a structure. His vision as an artist and his sense of humor bring the parts together in a form that is not only pleasing, but often thought-provoking and dynamic, challenging the viewer to look past the recognizable shape to see how everything is connected.
Many of Chris’s pieces encourage people to participate, to place themselves inside or to pass underneath and through, seeing the form from several angles. Each piece is site-specific, taking advantage of the surrounding landscape and architecture and often incorporating regional or cultural hallmarks. The placement of every piece of sculpture is carefully selected for the maximum effect of discovery and scale. Christopher is based in Birmingham, Alabama.
The success of American Sculptor Christopher Weed results from a savvy ability to transform the idea of ordinary objects into extraordinary, reimagined monumental sculptures. They exude strength in scale while maintaining a levity of attitude, magnetically attracting the curiosity of those who visit them.
Chris’s art transforms the idea of ordinary objects into extraordinary, reimagined monumental sculptures. His work exudes strength in scale while maintaining a levity of attitude, magnetically attracting the curiosity of those who view the sculptures. His adventurous use of scale and unexpected angles creates a delightful thrill for viewers, providing an immersive experience. His choice of objects and the personality born into each sculpture is key to forming an emotional connection to the artwork. Whether the object is a stylized re-creation of something recognizable or a more symbolically abstracted representation, each sculpture has a familiarity that makes it relatable to the viewer. Scale, fragmented angles, light, and color transform the viewer to another realm if only for a brief moment, fostering a new relationship with our surroundings. Christopher is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
A Portland native, Pete Beeman builds sculpture in Portland, Oregon and New York City. Educated at Brown and Stanford Universities in art, engineering, and design, his work is often kinetic and interactive, industrial and playful. He builds useless but functional objects and thinks a lot about how our culture rates the utility and necessity of an object. Much of Beeman’s work is permanent public art. He is big in Oregon, Taiwan, and North Carolina.
Adam Buente is the founder and owner of Project One Studio. The Studio explores the possibilities of connection through new technology, materiality, and the human environment. They are artists, designers, and fabricators committed to craft, experience, and authenticity. They use innovative, often intricate systems to guide pattern development, construction techniques, and texture building. As public artists, They collaborate nationally with architects, landscape architects, engineers, municipalities, and consultants to activate public and private spaces in ways that excite curiosity, welcome play, and delight the imagination.
They develop, build, and install large-scale private and public art commissions and custom architectural installations. Because they manage nearly all of the fabrication in-house, their hands and eyes are on the artwork from start to finish. Their digital, component-driven design methods allow them to experiment and solve for site-specific impact. It’s important that each project tells a story about the place it’s located and the lives of the people who will see it the most. Just like people and the places they live, their projects are multi-faceted and layered with complex textures, expansive pattern systems, and countless individual parts that together create innovative and inspiring artwork to stand the test of time.