Paul Hunter

Lives and works in New York

Artist statement

Luminosity has been the underlying theme of all my work. “Light is time thinking about itself.” — Octavio Paz I have continued to explore light and nature and the ephemerality of life in both sculptures and paintings. Sculpture: For the past few months, I have been working on a series of painted wall-mounted low-relief hammered coppers. These undulating low reliefs begin as flat sheets of copper that I hammer into three dimensional shapes and then cover with gold leaf or aluminum leaf, before painting them in translucent shades. Though these compositions are abstract, they suggest aerial views of familiar landscapes such as valleys, ridges and riverbeds that are so beautiful, but so threatened. The edges of the copper sheets rise and curve along the wall revealing the process of their making and suggesting how thin the living crust of the earth is. Prior to the copper sculptures, I carved wood. TheTimber sculptures explore light and nature in a three dimensional medium by translating my abstract meditative compositions into linear sculptures. Carved from construction beams, I strive to express the inner power and expansive potential of the original tree. Using my deceased father’s carving tools, I follow the wood’s natural growth lines and carve around the knots that mark where the branches grew outwards to free the tree within. I seal these amputated branches with luminous 23 K gold leaf. Painting: My earlier Confinement Gardens series developed during the Covid 19...

Artwork