HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! And what an exciting year it’s going to be… especially for me, and Canadian artist Ben Skinner! At the end of February we’ll be installing Ben’s solo show {that I have the thrill of curating} at the Honfleur Gallery in Washington DC. I’ve seen the work in progress, and it’s fan-freakin’-tastic… yep, that’s a fancy curator term. Anyway, Ben’s been making me jealous for years, and here is the artist that makes him jealous:

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I am jealous of Joseph Kohnke.

Joseph’s meticulously hand-crafted kinetic sculptures are a marvel to experience. His acute attention to detail goes beyond the sensible (I’ve seen the shipping crates he has made for some of his works). The sheer beauty of his sculpture/installations is never lost to his viewer but the details that go into making them sometimes can be. Like all the custom parts he designs, fabricates from aluminum, steel or brass, sands and hand polishes for a specific kinetic component or mounting bracket. People use the term “detail oriented”, but oriented isn’t strong enough of a word. How about “detail obsessive”. If you’ve ever seen Junk Yard Wars, this is the other end of that spectrum.
Aside from his fine skills as a machinist the concepts stand on their own, often evoking deep personal experiences in a hauntingly poetic way. I can’t wait for what he’ll conjure up next.

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The stills don’t do this work justice… I tried to embed the videos here, but let’s just say that didn’t go so well. Please visit Joseph’s site to see these amazing kinetic pieces in action. Thanks for stopping by Ben – see you in DC!

{ps. Ben’s show opens March 4th and runs until April 8th.}