Transalation Series. Aluminum Marine GArade/Polyurathane. Sizes Vary

Zammy Migdal was the Guest Artist at Contemporary Projects USA booth in Art Santa Fe tells: “In my work, energy flows to form clarity and purpose. While water and words are easy to pour, impossible to recover, I shape metal into form, but it is the emptiness inside the forms that hold the shadows. I create sculptures that transform spaces and walls into shapes, colors, and shadows. Each piece is strong, clean, often undulating, other times straight clean lines. Energy flows in my work to form clarity and purpose. I use the language of abstraction, dynamic shapes, and distinctive colors to transmit through art the essence of movement. Often lyrical and poetic artworks flow, move like dancers. It is my intention to re-invent, over and over, the perception of volumes, of empty spaces, the harmonies of color and the effects produced by the shadows within my sculptures. I use the strongest materials to delicately depict equilibrium, stress, torsion, swings or the act of stretching, influenced by my interest and active support of contemporary dance. Composition, balance, and elegance are fundamental qualities in my work. My series Levitation originated in my interest in suspending objects against gravity. Levitation, from the Latin ‘levitas’ or lightness, is the process by which an object is suspended in space. The illusion of levitation is created by the relationship among metal foregrounds, attaching pins, spaces, light, and shadows. The work is inspired by colors, experiences, and imagination, as much as by the spaces and the meaning of places for which they were created. My work portrays continuity and discontinuity: continuity reflected in the repeating qualities of the forms, while discontinuity reflects the variability shaped by my momentary experience. No two elements are ever the same. Slowly the ingredients, metal and movement, pins and paint, imagination, lights, and shadows, come together to create a splash of color bigger than the sum of its parts. I express myself in metal, mostly steel and aluminum.

Intersection in Red (Box). Steel/Polyurethane/Wood/French Linen. 26.5″ x 26.5″ x 5

In Levitation’s twisted metal elements, I place one end of the metal in a vise, sliding the other end through a slit in the lower end of a “T” shaped primitive instrument that I built. I achieve the form of each element using the power of my full body on the upper arms of the “T”, pushing and pulling against the inner strength of the metal. Mostly my strength overcomes the inner tension of the metal. Occasionally the strength of the metal wins in this game of arm wrestling, creating unexpected ripples of the element that speaks to the quality of the medium. Often my patterns are soft, contrasting the hardness of the metals; pleasing and agreeable to the senses they soothe their surroundings. This softness raises doubt about the hardness of the metal. Organic finishes, while exposing the true nature of the metal, create delicate silk-like ribbons. The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single stop. My journey started 10 years ago in an art class in Lincoln Road, mid-life, in the spring of my metal journey. When we wade into the river, it is never the same river twice. Each element is unique as it emerges with raw force. As I stop to count my blessings and share them with you, I look forward to much more. My work is found in private collections throughout the world and Art in Public Places.”