Terry Karpowicz is "Finding Place" at McCormick Gallery

Born in Cleveland in 1948, Karpowicz has amassed an enviable career as an artist, curator, mentor, Chicago fixture and all-around good guy. In the 70s, like so many young artists, he moved to New York taking odd jobs —tending bar at Max’s Kansas City and managing Larry Poons studio. In 1972 he assisted with the installation of a Mark di Suvero exhibition which inspired him to sculpture, and his template was set. In 1973 he enrolled at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in the graduate program in Sculpture. The completion of his degree work included several exhibitions including the Frank Logan Medal and Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago. Upon graduation he was awarded a Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship to the United Kingdom, serving as Scholar to the Wind and Watermill Section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, to study the technical and mechanical aspects of the country’s medieval wind and watermills.

Following his tenure in the UK, Karpowicz moved to Chicago in 1976 to establish a sculpture studio and continue his career. Since then, he has received two National Endowment for the Arts awards, four grants from the Illinois Arts Council, The Newhouse Award, and numerous public and private commissions. He has exhibited throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe and in the Soviet Union. Karpowicz has received seven commissions for public sculpture from the State of Illinois and his work is held in collections of the City of Chicago, Oklahoma City, and the U.S. General Services Administration.

PUBLIC ART INVOLVEMENT

Karpowicz’s involvement with public art began in the early 1980’s and continues today. To date he has completed more than 30 permanent public art projects for federal, state, municipal, corporate, school and university, and private commissions. He has worked as a grass-roots organizer of both small and extensive exhibitions, served as a consultant, installer, curator, fundraiser, juror and student mentor. In 1994 he co-founded Pier Walk at Chicago’s Navy Pier, the world’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition, serving as Executive Director of this annual international exhibition along Chicago’s lakefront. As a consultant, he has served on selection committees for the International Sculpture Center, the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago, and Sarasota Season of Sculpture.

As a collaborator he’s has installed public sculptures for internationally acclaimed artists including Mark di Suvero, John Henry, David Nash, and Leonardo Nierman. Currently, he is installation manager for Chicago’s International Sculpture Exchange Program, a partnership of the City, Chicago Gateway Green, and Sister Cities International to install large-scale sculpture from around the world at the gateways to the city.  Most recently, he has co-founded Chicago Sculpture International, a group of artists actively committed to promoting sculpture in Chicago’s neighborhoods, thereby introducing immediately accessible art to a broad audience.

Beyond these impressive accomplishments, Terry attends to his art practice daily from his massive Chicago studio and has graciously helped organize our current exhibition of his work, Finding Place.

Of his creative process, Karpowicz has written:

“I continue to practice the craft of wood-working and joinery and am especially drawn to the interactions of wind, water, sunlight, and gravity on natural materials. My work is defined by the tension at the point of contact, or joint, and the act of creating this tension.  By joining irregular, organic materials (such as wood limbs and granite shards) to machine-tooled geometric shapes of steel, I create sculpture with actual or implied kinetic relationships among the elements and between the sculpture and its environment.

The ways in which disparate materials interact with each other define my life and my relationship with the world. Oak and granite nesting in congruent harmony, stainless steel orbs spinning within walnut ellipses, granite shards twisting against armatures of steel - these elements are held together through my commitment to materials, history and craftsmanship.”