Fist-ier Fists of Fury: Dean Kugler at SOFA, and a Sneak Peek at Relic.

A while back I had a POST entitled 'Fists of Fury: Dean Kugler Style".  I got the chance to show the powerful work of my friend, Dean Kugler.  Just last November he was at SOFA (Sculptural Object Functional Art) at Navy Pier in Chicago.  Being in that show is a big deal, in and of, itself.  Wait until you see what he had there!

He had this giant piece "The Desecration Of Adam" in the sculpture garden area.  Here are a couple of shots of the piece getting the rust tweaked in the shop.

A couple shots of the piece against a white wall (because that's what we do)...

...and here is how it looked at SOFA.

In addition to getting his giant Desecration Of Adam piece ready for the show (a near-Herculean task all by itself), he also made a couple bronze sculptures for the show.

In an earlier POST, when I showed a visit to our friend Lonnie Stewart and his studio, I described the process required to make a bronze sculpture.  Dean also worked with Kyle Chipman at The Hot Scots Man Foundry out of Peoria to get his bronzes fabricated.

Below are the various cast piece of one of his pieces waiting to be cut separate free from their sprues, cleaned up, TIG welded together, re-cleaned up, and then sanded/ground smooth.

Here's a shot of Dean Kugler incising various symbols into the 'flesh' of his Desecration piece.

The Desecration of Adam bronze starting to come together.....

Completed with its patina and base.

In my earlier post 'Fists Of Fury' I showed Dean working on his large version of Gravity outside The Figge Art Museum.  Here is his bronze version!

You can see several of the seams where the different cast sections of bronze are joined to create the whole.

Here are a couple shots of the early stages of the patina process.

....and done!

Did somebody mention something about a show called Relic?  In the 7 months since SOFA, Dean has really starting to expand his ideas and execution.  I stopped by his studio the other day to get a sneak peek at what he has been working on.  Here are just a few examples of works from his upcoming show at Quad City Arts.

I love the finish on the wings...

...and also the body.

A couple other pieces in progress.

Those last several images were just to serve as a teaser for the show.  If you wanna see how these pieces turned out, you'll have to go to the show.  Relic opens Friday, June 29th (7-9pm) at Quad City Arts in Rock Island.  Come check it out!