arts & life

ar t

Being and Becoming, aluminum with cadmium acrylic

Continuum, aluminum
with white enamel

Building Fascination

Suzanne Chessler | Contributing Writer

In a new exhibition,

sculptor Lois Teicher

uses powerful

color and space as

materials to express

her own evolution of

growth.

details

"Continuum" runs May 21-June
18 at the Robert Kidd Gallery
in Birmingham. There will be
an opening reception 5-8 p.m.
Saturday, May 21. (248) 642-3909;
robertkiddgallery.com.

38 May 19 • 2016

L

ois Teicher showed an
interest in forming large
structures as a child raised
in Northwest Detroit. In the
vacant lot next to her home, she
used branches and leaves to build
fortresses for hiding and dream-
ing.
Discouraged from going to col-
lege by her parents, Teicher set
aside her academic goals while
starting a family. As her daughter
and two sons grew, she found
ways to pursue her interests in
art through studies unavailable to
her earlier.
Over 16 years, she earned
a bachelor’s degree from the
College for Creative Studies and
a master’s degree from Eastern
Michigan University and transi-
tioned from ceramics to sculp-
ture. A turning point in three-
dimensional work came with
selling a project at a student art
show, and she established a stu-
dio across from Eastern Market
in Detroit.
Thirty plus years of preparing
projects for display and accepting
private and public commissions
have included large sculptures

weighing as much as 3,000
pounds for outdoor placement
— bringing her back to a setting
where the fascination with build-
ing began.
Teicher’s next solo show,
“Continuum,” will run May
21-June 18 at the Robert Kidd
Gallery in Birmingham, where
her work is represented and
where her smaller sculptures will

be on display.
“I’ve made 15 new pieces out
of aluminum,” says Teicher, 77,
a winner of the Bernard L. Maas
Prize for Achievement in Jewish
Culture & Continuity in the Area
of Fine Arts. “Some are three-
dimensional, and some are two-
dimensional. Many of them are
for the wall.
“Lately, I’ve been inspired by

Eclipse Series IV

Lois Teicher

eclipses, and some are restate-
ments of the idea of the eclipse,
a connection to something larger
than ourselves with a human
experience element. I’m using
rounded shapes but not in every-
thing.”
Solar Flare, for instance, was
planned to capture the sense of
energy coming off the sun.
“Box and container shapes are