John David Mooney is a Chicago-based, internationally recognized artist, known for his large-scale public sculptures, light pieces, and environmental installations. Astronomy, science, and nature have played a significant role in Mooney's art, and his public sculptures often draw inspiration from the spirit of place, the importance of the site, its history, and present environment. [1]
A Champaign native, Mooney received his MFA from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In 1994, Mooney was an artist-in-residence at the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo and created outdoor sculptures inspired by astronomical phenomena at the Observatory's rooftop telescopes and Vatican gardens. [2] His 48-story light sculpture became the icon for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, [3] and his Malta Millennium sculpture, commissioned by the government of Malta, ushered in 2000. [4] Other important projects include Light Muse, the transformation of the Tribune Tower into a light sculpture to celebrate the Chicago Tribune's sesquicentennial in 1997, and Lightscape '89, a display projected on the IBM Building in Chicago in honor of the company's 75th anniversary. [5] [6]
In North America, Mooney's commissions include Crystara, a 30-foot-long Waterford Crystal and aluminum suspended sculpture created for the John Crerar Library at the University of Chicago; [7] the Miami Wave, a 57,000 sq. ft. paving piece designed for a new entrance to the Miami International Airport; [8] Wild Ricing Moon, a 95-foot-high sculpture honoring the Native Americans for the University of Minnesota Duluth; and Spiral Galaxy , a 16' high stainless steel sculpture located on the grounds in front of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. [9]
The artist's Art in the Park project for Urbana, Illinois, was completed in the spring of 2012 with the installation of Spirit Tree, a 33-foot-high light sculpture. Mooney designed all of the park's components: Falling Leaf, the park's 12-foot-high mirrored polished stainless steel fountain sculpture; the landscaping and plant material; the paving; the furniture; and the lighting.
The artist's work is in numerous private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Art Institute of Chicago, and major museums in Europe.
Mooney has had a distinguished academic career, having taught at numerous institutions throughout the United States and Europe. He was named a Distinguished Professor and Critic at the University of North Carolina's College of Architecture and a Distinguished Professor and Scholar in the Fine Arts at the University of Southern Indiana. In Europe, he has taught at such institutions as the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, the Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, and the Royal College of Art's Graduate School of Art in London. In 2016 he signed the pptArt Manifesto, [10] [11] an international art movement that today promotes many notable initiatives like the Corporate Art Awards.
He is founder and artistic director of the John David Mooney Foundation, which since 1981, has offered international artists and architects a place to study their postgraduate, advance disciplines and transform the public domain through art.
Mooney has received honorary doctorates from Purdue University, Dominican University, and Lyon College. [12] He has been the recipient of more than eight fellowships including the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Fellowship, the Royal Society of the Arts Fellowship, and four fellowships from the MacDowell Colony. Among his many honors, Mooney received the Eloise G. ReQua International Humanitarian Award in 1999 awarded by the Chicago-Kent School of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 2006, Mooney awarded the Chicago Illini of the Year from his alma mater.
Edward Delaney was an Irish sculptor born in Claremorris in County Mayo in 1930. His best-known works include the 1967 statue of Wolfe Tone and famine memorial at the northeastern corner of St Stephen's Green in Dublin and the statue of Thomas Davis in College Green, opposite Trinity College Dublin. These are both examples of lost-wax bronze castings, his main technique during the 1960s and early 1970s.
Castel Gandolfo, colloquially known as Castello in the Castelli Romani dialects, is a town located 25 km (16 mi) southeast of Rome, in the Italian region of Lazio. Situated on a hilltop in the Alban Hills with panoramic views of Lake Albano, Castel Gandolfo is home to approximately 8,900 residents and is renowned as one of Italy's most scenic towns. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia.
The Vatican Observatory is an astronomical research and educational institution supported by the Holy See. Originally based in the Roman College of Rome, the Observatory is now headquartered in Castel Gandolfo, Italy and operates a telescope at the Mount Graham International Observatory in the United States.
The Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State is the legislative body of Vatican City. It consists of a president, who also holds the title of President of the Governorate of Vatican City State and serves as the head of government of Vatican City, as well as seven other cardinals appointed by the pope for five-year terms.
Richard Howard Hunt was an American sculptor. In the second half of the 20th century, he became "the foremost African-American abstract sculptor and artist of public sculpture." Hunt, the descendant of enslaved people brought from West Africa through the Port of Savannah, studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1950s. While there he received multiple prizes for his work. In 1971, he was the first African-American sculptor to have a retrospective at Museum of Modern Art. Hunt has created over 160 public sculpture commissions, more than any other sculptor in prominent locations in 24 states across the United States.
Cloud Gate is a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, that is the centerpiece of Grainger Plaza at Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago. Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed "The Bean" because of its shape, a name Kapoor later grew fond of. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its reflective and highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It measures 33 by 66 by 42 feet, and weighs 110 short tons. The sculpture and its plaza are located above Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink.
Teresita Fernández is a New York-based visual artist best known for her public sculptures and unconventional use of materials. Her work is characterized by a profound reconsideration of landscape and issues of visibility. Fernández’s practice generates psychological topographies that prompt the subjective reshaping of spatial and historical awareness. Her experiential, large-scale works are often inspired by natural landscapes, investigating the historical, geological, and anthropological realms in flux. Her sculptures present spectacular optical illusions and evoke natural phenomena, land formations, and water in its infinite forms.
Judith Shea is an American sculptor and artist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1948. She was awarded a degree in fashion design from the Parsons School of Design in 1969 and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree there in 1975. This dual education formed the basis for her figure based works.
Untitled (L's), a public sculpture by American artist David Von Schlegell, is located on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus, which is near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The sculpture is located just north of Joseph Taylor Hall in a grassy courtyard adjacent to Michigan Street. Cavanaugh hall frames the courtyard to the west, the library and Business building are east of the courtyard. This sculpture was created in 1978, and installed at IUPUI in 1980. The sculpture is a Minimalist composition of three identical steel L's. The L structures have a vertical beam that is 55 feet (17 m) tall and a horizontal beam of 45 feet (14 m). The beams themselves are 16 inches (410 mm) high and 12 inches (300 mm) wide.
Eve is an outdoor sculpture of the biblical Eve created by Robert William Davidson in 1931. It is currently located in a fountain at Ball Nurses' Sunken Garden and Convalescent Park on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). The overall dimensions of this bronze sculpture are 5’ tall, 2’ long, and 1’ wide.
Tom Joyce is a sculptor and MacArthur Fellow known for his work in forged steel and cast iron. Using skills and technology acquired through early training as a blacksmith, Joyce addresses the environmental, political, and social implications of using iron in his work. Exhibited internationally since the 1980s, his work is included in 30-plus public collections in the U.S. and abroad. Joyce works in Santa Fe, New Mexico producing sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, and videos that reference themes of iron in the human body, iron in industry, and iron in the natural world.
Nancy Rubins is an American sculptor and installation artist. Her sculptural works are primarily composed of blooming arrangements of large rigid objects such as televisions, small appliances, camping and construction trailers, hot water heaters, mattresses, airplane parts, rowboats, kayaks, canoes, surfboards, and other objects. Works such as Big Edge at CityCenter in Las Vegas contain over 200 boat vessels. Stainless Steel, Aluminum, Monochrome I, Built to Live Anywhere, at Home Here, at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, contains 66 used aluminum boats and rises to a height of 30 ft.
The Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo, or the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo from its Italian name Palazzo Apostolico di Castel Gandolfo, is a 135-acre (54.6-ha) complex of buildings in a garden setting in the city of Castel Gandolfo, Italy, including the principal 17th-century villa, an observatory and a farmhouse with 75 acres (30.4 ha) of farmland. The main structure, the Papal Palace, has been a museum since October 2016. It served for centuries as a summer residence and vacation retreat for the pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, and is afforded extraterritorial status as one of the properties of the Holy See. It overlooks Lake Albano.
Liz Larner is an American installation artist and sculptor living and working in Los Angeles.
Balan Nambiar is an Indian painter, sculptor, enamellist, photographer and an academic researcher.
Helidon Xhixha is a contemporary artist born in Durrës, Albania, in December 1970. Xhixha is known for his stainless steel sculptures, which is often fused with other mediums such as marble or brass.
Sabina Ott was an American artist known for her broad range of work—from painting to installation to sculpture—and her central role in the art world as teacher, administrator, and recently, as the founder of the exhibition space Terrain, which invites artists to create installations and performances using the exterior of her Oak Park home.
Spiral Galaxy is an outdoor stainless steel sculpture by John David Mooney, installed outside the Adler Planetarium on Chicago's Northerly Island, in the U.S. state of Illinois.
Michael Janis is an American artist currently residing in Washington, DC where he is one of the directors of the Washington Glass School. He is known for his work on glass using the exceptionally difficult sgraffito technique on glass.
Joan Livingstone is an American contemporary artist, educator, curator, and author based in Chicago. She creates sculptural objects, installations, prints, and collages that reference the human body and bodily experience.