Magic happens right before your eyes when you experience the work of artist Larry Kagan.
Using only twisted steel, light and cast shadows, Kagan creates an exciting experience of seeing things in a whole new way. At first look, Kagan’s steel sculptures challenge you to interpret what the work is meant to convey. Once the element of light is cast onto the sculpture, something amazing happens — abstract transforms to figurative. The shadow projected onto the wall becomes a recognizable image. A portrait of Andy Warhol magically appears from circular and twisted wires of metal. A jumbled collection of steel reveals a man’s leather dress shoe. A cardboard box is revealed from circles and long, curved metal. These shadows make you conscious of the duality of light and dark, abstraction and representation, the visible and the hidden. Kagan’s work is the concept of Yin and Yang in art form.
Larry Kagan (b.1946) is a Professor Emeritus at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. The MAM exhibition is Kagan’s first solo exhibition in New Jersey and one of his few museum shows in the tri-state region.
