ART

Sanchez Art Center is honored to present Robert Hudson: Recent Work, an exhibit of Hudson’s sculpture curated by Philip E. Linhares. The exhibition opens February 25 with a reception from 7 to 9 pm, and runs through March 27. Robert Hudson is an artist of national and international renown, one of our foremost American sculptors. For the last four decades, he has been known for his large-scale welded-steel and poly-chromed steel and bronze sculptures, but he has also produced an extensive body of work in ceramics, paintings, and drawings. Hudson recently completed a 144 by 11-foot tall mural, entitled Landmark, in porcelain over steel for One Hawthorne, a condominium overlooking Howard Street in San Francisco.

Hudson first received wide recognition in the 1960s as a part of the Bay Area Funk movement, which produced a liberating explosion of zany assemblage art. Fifty years later, Kenneth Baker, art critic at the SF Chronicle, calls Hudson’s recent work “mature in all the right senses: seasoned, confident, even wise in a way difficult to explain.” The Frank Lloyd Gallery, representing Mr. Hudson in New York, notes that his spatially and formally complex work is “often characterized by found objects, wit, and irony.” Hudson is also represented by the Patricia Sweetow Gallery in San Francisco.

Robert Hudson grew up in Richland, Washington, and earned both a BFA and MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he also taught before joining the art department at UC Berkeley. He has often collaborated with colleagues and lifelong friends William Wiley, Richard Shaw, and William Allen. Hudson‘s work is included in the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Modern Art; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Robert Hudson's work leads viewers into new interior territory. Each piece asks rather than answers questions, and leaves us with a sense of fresh perspective, wonder, and gratitude. His works are intriguing, and while they may not be easily understandable, they are quietly insistent and intensely rewarding to engage with.