Stephen Talasnik, Untitled sculpture, from the collection of Dick Polich, Tallix Foundry, ca. 1997

Stephen Talasnik

Untitled sculpture, from the collection of Dick Polich, Tallix Foundry, ca. 1997

Cast light metal

signed by the artist on the work (see close up photograph)

6 3/5 × 12 × 4 inches

Provenance
Estate of Dick Polich, founder of the legendary Tallix Foundry and Polich Art works Beacon, NY

Manufacturer
Stephen Talasnik at Tallix Foundry, Beacon, New York

About Stephen Talasnik:
View works.
Stephen Talasnik’s drawing and sculpture explore otherworldly landscape and objects that evoke childhood memories. Originally from Philadelphia, Talasnik grew up in an urban neighborhood surrounded by oil refineries, a shipyard, a helicopter factory, and an airport, immersing him in the aesthetics of industrial building. He lived in a house that bordered a local creek, providing him an opportunity to unearth the past as he searched for fossils imbued with fictional narratives. He turned these experiences into a world explored through drawing with pencil and building complex structures from wood.

Talasnik has spent the better part of sixty years inventing the past and envisioning and documenting the future. Often defined as “Fictional Engineering”, he uses no system of measurement, relying on the aesthetics of intuition and invention. He has built roller coasters out of toothpicks, drawn visionary spaceships, and constructed entire cities out of found objects.

Working in his Brooklyn studio and ever informed by intuitive engineering and the human form, Talasnik continues to explore the unlimited capacity of the fictional object and landscape. Seduced by a visionary’s mantra, he relies on his personal encyclopedia of experience to define an imagined world that explores the visual capacity of a self-defined beauty. Archeological in nature, the viewer is invited to examine a personalized lexicon; extracting clues but challenged to determine specific identity. Employing pencil or wood, Talasnik’s works must always suggest the unfinished yet complete.

Talasnik attended the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA) where he studied Black and White theory with photographers Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan, who nurtured his passion for drawing. His graduate studies took him to Rome with the Tyler School of Art (MFA) where he drew both the human form and architecture from the Classical environment. After completing his formal studies, Talasnik moved to Tokyo where he spent three years. It was in Tokyo that a fascination with hand building re-emerged after studying the art of bamboo construction. Following his time in Japan, Talasnik spent ten years traveling through Asia, all while commuting to his studio in New York City. These seminal experiences inform Talasnik’s obsession with drawing and building landscapes and objects that defy time or place.

In 2010, Talasnik ventured into the world of land art, and has completed major installations at the Storm King Art Center (NY); the Tippet Rise Art Center (MO); the Denver Botanic Garden (CO); the Russel Wright Design Center (NY); and Architektur Galerie Berlin. Talasnik has maintained ongoing studio investigations while exhibiting internationally. His work has been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY); the Albertina (Vienna); the British Museum (London); the National Gallery of Art (DC); the Pompidou Centre (Paris); and the Whitney Museum (NY) among others. Talasnik lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Courtesy of Maya Frodeman Gallery