Lois Lambert Gallery is currently presenting a collection of deceivingly realistic sculptures of everyday objects formed in wood, titled “Thirty Years of Deception.”
The exhibit, which opened March 16, is on show through May 12.
Through a precise process of carving, laminating, and painting with lacquers, Tom Eckert creates wood forms to suggest cloth, along with life-sized everyday objects also made entirely out of wood.
Using more than 200 woodworking tools, Eckert uses his skills gained as a craftsman making cabinetry to blend the boundary between art and craft.
The meticulous detail and exact scale to which each still life is made heightens the impact of each item and the illusion it creates. Ordinary objects such as a high-heel shoe or a shovel draped with fabric create a dialogue between the items and the viewer, evoking the theme of perception and mystery of the unseen.
Covered forms are often more evocative – with a sense of mystery absent from the uncovered object by itself.
Through their reverence and deceptive nature, the still-lifes become metaphors for our culture, and transcend woodworking as craft to become sculpture.
Eckert received his Bachelors degree and Master of Fine Arts at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, and has been a professor of Art (Sculpture) at Arizona State University since 1971.
Eckert has exhibited in more than 150 national and international exhibitions since 1966, and his work is shown throughout the United States and the Netherlands.
His work is included in many private and public collections including Los Angeles County Art Museum, Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin, the Museum of Fine Arts Massachusetts, Museum of Arts & Design, New York, Albuquerque Museum of Art, New Mexico, Tweed Museum of Art, Minnesota, EL Paso Museum of Art, Texas, Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona.
He received a Visual Arts Fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts twice and was awarded WESTAF/NEA grants in 1993 and 1989.
Lois Lambert Gallery is located at 2525 Michigan Ave. E3 (Bergamot Station), Santa Monica. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 am to 6 pm, Saturday from 11am to 6 pm, and Sunday from noon to 4 pm.
For more information, call 310.829.6990 or visit loislambertgallery.com.
