Mike Wsol's recent creative work has taken the form of large experiential, interactive public sculpture, prints, and drawings. He has exhibited in New York, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, and Miami, among other cities. His most recent exhibitions are at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University where he won first place for his sculpture “Lost Horizon”, the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN; at the Joan Derryberry Art Gallery at Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, Art on the Beltline, Atlanta, GA; and the Tarble Arts Center at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL. Mike has also been the recipient of grants and awards from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management, Indiana University, and the Georgia State University Center for Collaborative and International Arts to name a few. He earned a Master of Architecture degree from The University of Virginia, a Master of Fine Art in Sculpture from The University of Georgia, a Master of Arts in Sculpture and a Bachelor of Arts in Sculpture from Eastern Illinois University.
Artist Statement: This sculpture is intended to reflect an industrial process on the exterior and a more sacred natural one inside. The form is built from large propane tanks that are sliced and welded into a clover-leaf shaped chamber. The exterior’s mass, rust and industrial aesthetic is intended to be somewhat uninviting, but when the viewer enters, the painted curved walls lead the viewer’s eye upwards toward an oculus in its domed roof. The interior architecture highlights time and place by allowing the sun to mark the interior walls with a moving projection of light that shifts from circle to ellipse until it disappears near the end of the day.
The title "In Between” refers to the intervention between the external industrial structure, forged using natural resources and an internal experience with nature designed for contemplation.
