arts&life

exhibit

S

teven Linn was introduced
to the large, sculptural
works of George Segal in
the 1960s during an artist lecture
at the University of Illinois, where
Linn was a student.
Years later, Linn, already a
sculptor himself, got to know
Segal personally during work-
related travel through Italy. Linn
had been asked to accompany
Segal for a week by the United

of Glass Wearables” completed
by 14 artists and including jew-
elry, masks, purses and coats.
Linn has been showing new
works at the gallery since 1983
and will be in town for the open-
ing. His other piece to be shown,
Steven Hawking, honors the
theoretical physicist and further
emphasizes Linn’s continuing
sculptural approach, which is
biographical, documentary and

White Hot

Habatat Galleries’

annual invitational

celebrates its

45th anniversary

with more than

100 artists —

including

Steve Linn.

SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

details

The grand opening of the Habatat
Galleries 45th Annual International
Glass Invitational Award Exhibition
takes place 8-11 p.m. Saturday,
April 29. It is free and open to the
public. The exhibition continues,
also free and open to the public,
until July 21. The gallery is at
4400 Fernlee, Royal Oak.
(248) 554-0590; habatat.com.

46

April 20 • 2017

States embassy as the senior art-
ist prepared a project and need-
ed help with the language.
Now, Linn is making more
people aware of Segal’s struc-
tural style, which is based on
plaster casting, through a new
piece, I Dreamt I Was a Model
for George Segal. It is one of two
Linn works being featured in the
45th Annual International Glass
Invitational Award Exhibition at
Habatat Galleries in Royal Oak.
Founded in 1971 by Ferdinand
Hampson and now run by his
sons, Aaron Schey and Corey
Hampson, Habatat Galleries
is the oldest and largest studio
glass gallery in the country,
known internationally as one of
the finest collections of art glass
in the world. The gallery’s annual
exhibition runs April 29-July 21
and will feature 500 works of
contemporary art glass by more
than 100 artists from 30 different
countries — including Jewish
artists Alex Bernstein, Jon Kuhn,
Laura Donefer and Irene Frolic.
Visitors will see cast, slumped,
fused, flame-worked and lami-
nated projects. This year’s theme
is “Next,” to explore artists’
insights into the future. New for
2017 is “Glassotic: An Exhibition

jn

large. More than communicating
straightforward portraiture, he
dramatizes the lives of individu-
als he admires.
“George Segal wrapped people
in plaster bandages and then
cut them out to reassemble the
pieces and make figurative envi-
ronments,” Linn says of the man
who sometimes leaned on his
Conservative Jewish background
to develop religious subjects.
“Five months ago, I dreamed
that Segal was making a sculp-
ture of me. I used that dream to
develop the piece being exhib-
ited in Michigan. It is made of
sandblasted carved glass, cast
glass and bronze, and it shows
Segal putting plaster bandages
on my face as I model for him.”
The Hawking wall piece, more
intricate and inspired, consists
of a large sandblasted carved
glass head of the scientist and
three cast glass heads to show
the evolution of the ALS (amyo-
trophic lateral sclerosis) that has
depleted movement abilities.
Coming from those heads
are three holograms to draw
attention to his theories. In the
surrounding areas are six heads
(drawings printed on brass)
of scientists who influenced

Linn’s I Dreamt I Was a Model for George Segal will be exhibited in the invitational.

Hawking — Galileo, Newton,
Copernicus, Einstein, Penrose
and Hubble.
“Sometimes, my work has
been about non-specific people,
rodeo cowboys and truckers, for
example,” says Linn, who works
out of a village studio in France
and has enjoyed reading biogra-
phies since childhood.
That reading interest preceded
any artistic direction. While
he studied floriculture and
ornamental horticulture in col-
lege because the concentration
offered a scholarship, he found
satisfaction through set design as
a non-academic activity.
“When I was a teenager in
Chicago, I was a dancer on
a show that was a version of
American Bandstand,” he recalls.
“When I got to college, I tried out
for a musical production and got
into that before helping with the
building of scenery.
“Right out of college, I got
a grant to be an assistant set
designer to Robin Wagner at
Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.
Before he went on to win Tony
Awards, Robin [still a friend] con-
vinced me to become a sculptor
because of my personality. I’m
not good at compromising, and
theater is a group sport.”
Linn started out working with
a mixture of wood and bronze,
adding glass while planning
a piece about photographer
Imogen Cunningham. She
worked with a camera having
negatives on glass plates — he
wanted to depict her on a life-

size glass plate.
“I like the luminosity of glass
and that it lends itself to the
kind of detailing I like to use,” he
says. “Wood adds warmth to the
pieces, and bronze adds visual
strength.”
Beginning with wood was
natural for Linn, who learned
skills from his late father, a high-
school woodshop teacher. Dad-
son projects, such as building a
model airplane without any kit,
were encouraged as was practic-
ing Judaism. Linn, who had a bar
mitzvah, now considers himself
more spiritual than religious.
“Adventure made me move to
France from New York in 1992,”
says Linn, whose quest for some-
thing new was shared by his
wife, graphic artist Karen Lehrer.
The couple’s daughter, Katie, an
infant when they moved, became
a police officer.
Linn, who holds dual citizen-
ship in the United States and
France and likes to do Nordic
walking for exercise, has seen his
work placed in homes and public
locations in both countries. His
range of subjects have included
musician Louis Armstrong, art-
ist Frida Kahlo and architect
Oscar Neimeyer. Three pieces
just entered the collection of
the Flint Institute of Art: Portrait
d’Amour, Juggling Soft Signs and
Chiracahua Spirit.
“Influences have sent me in
the direction of narrative art-
work,” Linn says. “Figures in my
sculpture have been like actors
on a stage.” •

