Environmental Art by Sculptor Michael Joseph Hibbard

Boynton Beach FL–Michael Joseph Hibbard will exhibit his large-scale metal sculpture this September. An installation of Hibbard’s piece, along with a work by nine other artists, will be open for viewing on September 24th at downtown Boynton Beach. The work will be on display for the next 12 months. Michael Joseph Hibbard’s sculptures are massive structures, often reaching over 10 feet high. They are made from angular facets of welded sheet metal and recycled material such as shredded tires and plastic bottles. These reused materials are significant for him since they represent the pervasive industrial impact on the environment. Hibbard paints his sculptures, at times in a single bold hue, but more often in two colors to emphasize individual planes. While made from welded metal, the sculptures have a lively sense of movement, reaching and bending in space or along the ground. The work is abstract, while reflecting the artist’s interest in contemporary architecture and the industrial forms of Buffalo, NY where he grew up.
In the Boynton Beach exhibition, Hibbard will show #197, nearly 8 feet tall, whose flaring base narrows to a tighter vertical extension, ending in a wire mesh cage filled with shredded recycled tires. The sculpture is painted bright red and one of the corners of its base is lifted to reveal the hollow interior.
John Mendelsohn wrote that in Hibbard’s work, “...sculpture’s capacity for enclosure, exclusion, shelter and entrapment become a means to make art with an emotional undertow. The language of the industrial infrastructure once stood only for dynamism; it now implies both growth and decay. In Hibbard’s bold, bent forms are intimated the effort to right oneself, keep standing and to reach beyond, while acknowledging the unstable, shifting ground upon which we stand.” Hibbard has exhibited his sculptures in many group exhibitions including two Area Artist Exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY. Some other group exhibitions, he’s shown his work are Diane DeBilzan Gallery, Laguna Beach CA and the NCECA Exhibition at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Hibbard’s work is part of many corporate and City collections. He received his BS degree in Ceramic Design from Buffalo State College in 2007. The Boynton Beach exhibition is sponsored by. The City of Boynton Beach “Art in Public Places Program”.

For further information contact Michael Joseph Hibbard, michaeljoseph@michaeljhibbard.com, 716 352-2059, or www.michaeljhibbard.com.