40th Anniversary Martin and Doris Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition & Exhibition

Die Fledermaus, 2021

John Parker

Glenside, PA

Bolted & welded steel

108” x 62’’ x 164”

Artist statement

The forms from nature that I have drawn from for these sculptures are taken from insect life–segmented, hard-shelled bodies, robotic and armor coated, yet able to instantly take flight. The large scale of these otherwise small creatures comes from reality and fantasy of the prehistoric world. Steel plate is my material of choice; man made and industrial in its purchased form. I enjoy the challenge of making something animated and weightless with iron. 

Outdoor sculptures must function in a comprehensive way both as a drive-by experience, and as strong and dynamic silhouettes. With further exploration for the passer-by or neighborhood resident, a deeper appreciation and enjoyment can be explored by walking around, under, and through the pieces.

About the artist

John Parker received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and MFA from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He taught welding at the Skill Center in Grand Rapids and sculpture for four summers at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Parker moved to the Philadelphia area in 1980 where he was Iron Foreman for Old City Construction Company. Three years later, he was a creator and Vice President of Voltri Ironworks where he fabricated and installed structural and miscellaneous steel. In 1989, he launched his own business, The Painted Garden Inc., where he designs, fabricates and installs iron garden structures including trellises, pergolas, and gates. Parker has been making large scale steel sculptures since 1975 and has shown his work in exhibitions throughout the East Coast and Midwestern states. He is in collections that include Skokie Northshore Sculpture, Park, IL; Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, Hamilton, OH; and Quiet Waters Park, Annapolis, MD.

Hope’s Progress, 2024

Charlie Brouwer

Willis, VA

Charred locust wood, desk screws

80” x 210” x 36”

Artist statement

I’m an artist in search of beauty, truth, and goodness. My search includes philosophy, theology, the earth and the whole human condition, so my practice involves a dialogue with materials and the history of humanity and art. My audience has been my real-world neighbors, community, and Facebook/Instagram followers as well as the art world of galleries and museums. My work with outdoor sculptures and public art began in the 1990s and evolved to include social practice and community engagement after 2000. After suddenly becoming visually impaired/legally blind in 2022, I thought my work as an artist had ended. Soon, however, I noticed trees in contrast against winter skies began to speak to me as my wife drove me here and there and I embarked on months of drawing trees with charcoal on paper and then on 6’x4’ canvases. Now, I’m finding new ways to continue my practice–even making large, locust wood outdoor sculptures that I’ve been giving charred surfaces that seem to be about both personal and national resilience in difficult times.

About the artist

Charlie Brouwer lives with his wife Glenda in Floyd County, VA. Their home and studio are on nine acres of woods, fields, and gardens at the end of a gravel road. While teaching art at Kalamazoo Christian High School from 1976-87, Brouwer completed graduate degrees at Western Michigan University, an MA in Painting in 1980 and an MFA in Sculpture in 1984. He was a sculpture instructor at Western Michigan University in 1985-86 and a professor of Art at Radford University from 1967-2008. Brouwer has been a full-time artist since 2008. 

Kuiper Belt, 2026

Hanna Jubran

Grimesland, NC 

Cast aluminum

108” x 96” x 192”

Artist statement

The Kuiper Belt–named in honor of the Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper–is a circumstellar disc in the outer solar system.The ring-shaped disk of matter is composed of gas dust asteroids orbiting around a star; they indicate that planetary material that has survived the whole of stellar evolution. The Kuiper Belt is home to most of the objects that astronomers generally accept as a dwarf planet. The circular form can be interpreted as space, comets, gases, clouds, and heavenly objects. It expresses the universe from the micro to the macro. I am condensing time and space. They are ever-expanding. I would like the viewer to gaze, interact and experience my sculpture. It incorporates recognizable, geometric, and organic forms that invite contemplation and slowly reveal the content of the sculpture. Kuiper Belt evokes moments of great human exploration.

About the artist

Hanna Jubran received his MFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is currently a Sculpture Professor and Sculpture Area Coordinator at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. Jubran’s work addresses the concepts of time, movement, balance, and space. Each sculpture occupies and creates its own reality influenced by its immediate surroundings. The work does not rely on one medium to evoke the intended response, but takes advantage of compatible materials such as wood, granite, steel, iron, and bronze. Between nature and sculpture, Jubran is condensing time and space–they are ever-changing.

Fire Spirit, (from the Earth Sustainer series), 2023

Theresa Arico

Chapel Hill, NC

Mosaic, metal base 

120” x 36” x 24”

Artist statement

I love to create art in the form of mosaics. Weaving together different materials such as stained glass, tiles, crockery, and trinkets of their myriad shapes and colors into a singular expression which tells a complete story is great fun! I am particularly fond of using both new and recycled objects to create a unique new vision and purpose. Reassigning value in cast-off objects that normally contribute to the waste stream in our culture is important to me. Reinvention and second chances are important aspects of our human story as well. I draw my creative inspiration directly from nature and the beauty that is present in the natural world. I also love using mirror or mirrored outlines in my work, as it gives viewers the opportunity to see a part of themselves reflected in the assembled mosaic. In this way, the work is not stagnant but ever changing and enlivened. For several years I’ve been creating my own ceramic “tiles” in many shapes and sizes as well as hand-stamped word tiles for incorporating poetry and words. My purpose in making art is to create beauty that is resourced through a higher or mystical perspective. I am also interested in creating public art that brings community together, both in the creation of the work, and how it depicts a sense of unity and our shared humanity.

About the artist

Theresa Arico is a self-employed mosaic artist and sculptor specializing in large-scale mosaic sculpture using stained glass, tile, and found objects. She is also an avid gardener who has worked in many mediums to express her creative vision including modern dance choreography, theatre/stage set design, and multi-media mosaic murals. 

Industrial Growth, 2021

Glenn Zweygardt

Alfred Station, NY 

Painted steel, weathered steel, powder-coated cast ductile iron, 

cast bronze, cast glass

192” x 96” x 36”

Artist statement

The theme of my sculpture is the placement of myself in relation to nature. While working in materials such as metal, stone, and glass, I am telling three-dimensional stories that capture my life experiences immersed in my perception of a collective consciousness. It is my intention that these stories, spoken through an expression of form, texture, and color, will enter into human consciousness.

About the Artist

Born and raised in northwest Kansas, Glenn Zweygardt received his BFA from Wichita State University in sculpture and painting. He earned his MFA from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. 

 Zweygardt has been an active sculptor and educator for 50 plus years. With more than 50 solo exhibitions and multiple purchase awards to his name, he shows works both nationally and internationally. His sculptures are included in many university, museum, outdoor and private collections. Now a Professor Emeritus of Sculpture at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Zweygardt continues to make signature sculptures in his Alfred Station studio. His creations of steel, ductile iron, stainless steel, cast glass, cast bronze, and aluminum are often combined with stone from around the world. These sculptures range from monumental outdoor works to small intimate pieces.

More Cock and Bull, 2026

Clifton Cox 

Winchester, KY 

Stainless steel & milled steel fabrication

156” x 96” x 84”

Artist statement

More Cock and Bull was inspired by the legendary “Cock and Bull” story. The abstracted sculptural form is my visual interpretation of the story’s description. The rooster, or cock–as described in the story–is deceiving the bull by telling an implausible tale of distorted reality. The cock is distinguished by the polished stainless-steel form that rests on top of the bull-shaped pedestal. The bull is characterized as the base with a large grounding form and rusted steel finish. Together, the cock and bull create duality with the similarity of shapes and forms and implied movement. Balance of form and energy exists in the composition, as the two forms complement each other in space and oppose with surface application. Perpetuating each other, the cock and bull forms connect in energetic devotion, signifying that nonsense requires participation.

About the artist

Clifton Cox is a Lexington, KY native artist, best known for creating fabricated steel sculptures composed of intricately abstract forms and structures, exhibiting timeless movement and energy. These works are inspired by organic and figurative elements and balanced with a combination of mechanical components, polished finishes, and vivacious colors. The purpose is to create an appealing form with endless angles of composition, captivate the viewer’s imagination, and influence the viewer to create their own narrative, encouraging a personal relationship with the form.

Orange Sage, 2025

David Boyajian

New Fairfield, CT

Fabricated steel 

120” x 84” x 60”

Artist statement

Orange Sage is an organic abstraction fabricated from steel. This poetic narrative represents time and timing; capturing the moment of unfurling and releasing; that moment of holding on and letting go; where the nurturing energy of love is released. My home and metal sculpture studio are located in New Fairfield, CT and I have been building sculptures for the past 35 years. The sculptures I fabricate from steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and bronze are organic abstraction. 

About the artist

David Boyajian is an artist, art instructor, and the owner of David Boyajian Sculpture Studio in New Fairfield, CT. In the early 1980s, Boyajian studied at Alfred University, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and earned his MFA from the Maryland Institute Rinehart School of Sculpture. Following his fine art education, Boyajian continued his studies while assisting figurative sculptors Wolfgang Behl, Elbert Weinberg, and Andrew Coppola. His teaching career has spanned over 20 years at institutions such as Western Connecticut State University, Silvermine School of Art, and Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. 2026 marks Boyajian’s 23rd year teaching metal, stone, and wood sculpture at his studio.

Over the course of his 30 plus year career, Boyajian has shown his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including SculptureNow at The Mount in Lenox, MA, Edith Wharton’s home (also in Lenox, MA), Bull City Sculpture Show in Durham, NC, and ‘Genesis,’ an outdoor solo show at the Robert Moses Sculpture Garden at Fordham University in Bronx, NY. 

Exploratory Unit #2, 2017

Harry McDaniel 

Asheville, NC 

Aluminum

96” x 36” x 36”

Artist statement

My work has spanned a diverse range of materials, style, techniques, and content. I am continually drawn to new challenges and opportunities to experiment. The impetus of many of my sculpture designs involves a combination of geometric forms and plant or animal forms. There is a slightly uneasy fit between the two which can be surprising and exciting. The sense of order within geometric forms contrasts with the malleability and transience of living forms.

As a sculpture takes form, there is a moment in the process when the design begins to transcend the materials. A sense of flexibility, movement, or softness inhabits an assembly of metal or wood. Something in the graceful curves or the proportions and relationships between parts suggests the presence of a living force. As I work the rigid material, one part of my brain becomes enticed by the illusion created in another part of my brain. I love those moments. This is when I know the sculpture is beginning to work.

About the artist

Harry McDaniel’s work has spanned a diverse range of materials, style, technique, and content. He is continually drawn to new challenges and opportunities to experiment. Throughout his career, he has enjoyed creating visually enticing abstract works, but has also felt compelled to explore social, psychological, and political issues through his sculptures. The former approach comes fairly easily to him; the latter can be like pulling teeth. Creating meaningful work–without falling into a depressive cloud of doom, or a sappy, sentimental expression of positivity–is challenging. Generally, he would like for his work to be uplifting or enlightening in some sense; the world doesn’t particularly need more doom. Part of the reason that creating public art is so appealing to him is that an abstract sculpture can take on social significance beyond decoration. It can offer a small uplifting moment to anyone who pauses to explore.

Navigator, 2024

Andrew Light

Lexington, KY 

Steel

81” x 32” x 26”

About the artist

Andrew Light is currently based in Central Kentucky. He received his BFA from the University of Kentucky and graduated with an MFA in 2008 from Florida State University. He was a former resident of Chattanooga and was studio assistant, fabricator, and welder at John Henry Sculptor, Inc. Light previously served as fabricator and welder at Bettinger Welding in Tallahassee, FL, and at Ironbridge Open Air Museum in Coalbrookdale, England. His works have been exhibited in Florida at Art Without Walls, Florida State Museum, Railroad Square Sculpture Park, and 621 Gallery; and in Lexington, KY, at Downtown Arts Center, Intrinsic Gallery, and Keystone Gallery. 

Alien Flower, 2022

Richard Herzog

Athens, GA

Steel

80” x 84” x 84”

Artist statement

As an artist I do not have the answers; I feel my role is more like an activist. I do not create work with a political agenda nor have a politically motivated view. My role is to bring awareness to the society in which we live and to the subjects, objects, and ideas that permeate our culture in a subordinate or subversive manner. I am not interested in explaining the world, but to put it into a different context. I examine parts of society and nature to bring awareness to these elements and alter the viewer’s perceptions. My goal is to make them look at things a bit different and consider the world they live in more closely.

My current work explores botanical forms, the lack of interaction between man and nature, the artificialization of nature, and the patterning that occurs in nature. These sculptures talk about organization and the chaotic nature within natural and man-made forms. I look at how items are composed and their many parts, then abstract their elements–keeping true to their inherent qualities. Some sculptures are more organic in form as if growing or flowing from group to group, mimicking ivy or spring flowers sprouting here and there. All, a combination of a systematic organization of natural forms, possessing a chaotic, multi-layered visual effect, creating a metaphor of our world, dominated by its rapid pace and over-stimulation.

About the artist

Richard Herzog has created outdoor sculptures and installations professionally for more than 30 years. His works have been included in exhibitions throughout the US including New York,Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and internationally in more than 100 group, solo, and outdoor exhibitions. For most of the past decade, his focus has been on public art and outdoor sculpture, creating works that bring awareness to our surrounding environment using manufactured materials that bridge the gap of man-made and natural. These works have explored a variety of themes, some as grand as climate change while others as mundane as storm damage to our forests and everywhere in between. His works have been cited in the Chicago Sun-Times as “representing the grit and grace of the contemporary south.” Herzog creates works that bridge the absurd and beautiful while highlighting man’s disconnection from the environment in which we live.