Michael Enn Sirvet

Last updated
Michael Enn Sirvet
Born (1967-05-09) May 9, 1967 (age 57)
Nationality American
Education Fordham University
University of Maryland, College Park
Known for Sculpture
AwardsAward of Distinction for Metal, James Renwick Alliance, 2009

Michael Enn Sirvet (born 1967) is an American sculptor, designer, and structural engineer. He acquired skills and exposure to traditional sculpture techniques while studying undergraduate art history as a minor at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, and while studying for his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, at the University of Maryland, College Park, by pursuing a minor in Studio Arts.

Contents

Early career

Sirvet is largely self-taught. In his early career as an artist, while maintaining full-time employment as a structural engineer as a member of Land Sculpture Studio in Beltsville, Maryland, he worked principally at making abstract, contemporary minimalist constructions using recycled metals and wood. His first shows at Washington D.C.'s Artomatic introduced him to the larger contemporary arts community in the metropolitan area. His bowl "Millennia" was awarded Award of Distinction for Metal by the James Renwick Alliance, a program of the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum. [1]

Mid-career

Sirvet's mid-career started flourishing when he left full-time work in 2008 to concentrate on fine art sculpture and functional design.

Having experimented with new forms in the early 2000s, Sirvet still works by hand, but has also pioneered use of new industrial technology for his art, using skills learned in the engineering field to create solid forms out of structural aluminum, architectural plastics, and wood, which are sometimes combined in modular components.

Sirvet has garnered several public art installations, including two commissions for the United States' Art in Embassies Program for the United States Embassy in Valletta, Malta [2] and the United States Consulate [3] in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In the United States, public art installations include Farragut Spheres for District of Columbia's Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority MetroArts Art in Transit program, [4] and Red Orchard Wall for the Montgomery County Public Arts Trust. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germantown, Maryland</span> Census-designated place in Maryland, United States

Germantown is an urbanized census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland. With a population of 91,249 as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous community in Maryland, after Columbia and Baltimore. Germantown is located approximately 28 miles (45 km) outside the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C., and is an important part of the Washington metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver Spring station</span> Washington Metro and MARC Train station

Silver Spring station is a train station on the Red Line of the Washington Metro and the Brunswick Line of the MARC Train commuter rail system. The Metro station averaged 4,536 daily riders in 2023, making it the 19th-busiest stop in the network and the busiest in the state of Maryland. Trains travelling south from the station quickly cross the border into Washington, D.C., while northbound trains head underground and make their way further into Montgomery County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ginny Ruffner</span> American glass artist

Ginny Ruffner is a pioneering American glass artist based in Seattle, Washington. She is known for her use of the lampworking technique and for her use of borosilicate glass in her painted glass sculptures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington metropolitan area</span> Metropolitan area in the United States

The Washington metropolitan area, also referred to as the D.C. area, Greater Washington, the National Capital Region, or locally as the DMV, is the metropolitan area centered around Washington, D.C., the federal capital of the United States. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is part of the larger Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area, which is the third-largest combined statistical area in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Pittsburgh</span> Region in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania

Greater Pittsburgh is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, United States. The region includes Allegheny County, Pittsburgh's urban core county and economic hub, and seven adjacent Pennsylvania counties: Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland in Western Pennsylvania, which constitutes the Pittsburgh, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area MSA as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transportation in Washington, D.C.</span>

Washington, D.C. has a number of different modes of transportation available for use. Commuters have a major influence on travel patterns, with only 28% of people employed in Washington, D.C. commuting from within the city, whereas 33.5% commute from the nearby Maryland suburbs, 22.7% from Northern Virginia, and the rest from Washington, D.C.'s outlying suburbs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artomatic</span>

Artomatic is a multi-week, multimedia arts event held in the Washington metropolitan area. It was founded by Washington, D.C. artist and arts activist George Koch. The non-juried, open event has provided a forum for artists of all types and abilities. There are also arts education and professional development workshops and discussions. Events were held from 1999 up to 2017 at intervals from one to three years, depending upon the availability of a site. Unable to have in-person events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an online event was held in 2020. The organization has remained active in the local arts community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Paley</span> American modernist metal sculptor

Albert Paley is an American modernist metal sculptor. Initially starting out as a jeweler, Paley has become one of the most distinguished and influential metalsmiths in the world. Within each of his works, three foundational elements stay true: the natural environment, the built environment, and the human presence. Paley is the first metal sculptor to have received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects. He lives and works in Rochester, New York with his wife, Frances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MetroAccess</span>

MetroAccess is a shared-ride public transportation service for individuals in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area who are unable to use fixed-route public transit due to disability. It is managed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and is operated by various companies that contract to provide the service. "Shared ride" means that multiple passengers may ride together in the same vehicle.

Therman Statom is an American Studio Glass artist whose primary medium is sheet glass. He cuts, paints, and assembles the glass - adding found glass objects along the way – to create three-dimensional sculptures. Many of these works are large in scale. Statom is known for his site-specific installations in which his glass structures dwarf the visitor. Sound and projected digital imagery are also features of the environmental works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arts on the Line</span> Greater Boston subway public art program

Arts on the Line was a program devised to bring art into the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) subway stations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Arts on the Line was the first program of its kind in the United States and became the model for similar drives for art across the country. The first twenty artworks were completed in 1985 with a total cost of US$695,000, or one half of one percent of the total construction cost of the Red Line Northwest Extension, of which they were a part.

New Leaf is a public artwork by American artist Lisa Scheer, located at the Georgia Avenue – Petworth Metro Station in Washington, D.C., United States. "New Leaf" was created through D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

<i>Kvinneakt</i> Statue in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Kvinneakt is an abstract bronze sculpture located on the Transit Mall of downtown Portland, Oregon. Designed and created by Norman J. Taylor between 1973 and 1975, the work was funded by TriMet and the United States Department of Transportation and was installed on the Transit Mall in 1977. The following year Kvinneakt appeared in the "Expose Yourself to Art" poster which featured future Mayor of Portland Bud Clark flashing the sculpture. It remained in place until November 2006 when it was removed temporarily during renovation of the Transit Mall and the installation of the MAX Light Rail on the mall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonard Cave</span> American sculptor (1944–2006)

Leonard E. Cave was an American sculptor who worked in the Washington metropolitan area. Cave exhibited his works in solo and group exhibitions mainly within the United States and Japan. He primarily worked with wood, carving large sculptural and abstract pieces, though he also worked with other materials, such as metal. In 1984, Cave founded the Washington Sculptors Group in Washington, D.C. He presided over this group for several years, though he was also a professor at Georgetown University and a public school teacher. He died in 2006 after sustaining fatal injuries from a car accident involving a drunk driver.

<i>Peoples Bike Library of Portland</i> Sculpture in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

People's Bike Library of Portland, also known as Zoobomb Pyle or simply "the pile", is a 2009 steel and gold leaf sculpture by local artists Brian Borrello and Rankin Renwick, located in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. It was erected in collaboration with the Zoobomb bicycling collective, and serves as a bicycle parking rack, a "lending library" for weekly bike riders, and a monument to the city's bike culture. The sculpture features a two-story spiral pillar with a gold-plated small bicycle on top; bicycles intended for Zoobomb riders are locked to the pillar and base, which has metal loops serving as hooks.

Martha Jackson Jarvis is an American artist known for her mixed-media installations that explore aspects of African, African American, and Native American spirituality, ecological concerns, and the role of women in preserving indigenous cultures. Her installations are composed using a variety of natural materials including terracotta, sand, copper, recycled stone, glass, wood and coal. Her sculptures and installations are often site-specific, designed to interact with their surroundings and create a sense of place. Her works often focus on the history and culture of African Americans in the southern United States. In her exhibition at the Corcoran, Jarvis featured over 100 big collard green leaves, numerous carp and a live Potomac catfish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erwin Timmers</span> Dutch-born American artist

Erwin Timmers is a Dutch-born American artist and the co-founder of the Washington Glass School in the Greater Washington, D.C. capital area. Timmers has been recognized as one of the early "green or environmental artists", working mostly with recycled glass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington Glass School</span>

The Washington Glass School was founded in 2001 by Washington, DC area artists Tim Tate and Erwin Timmers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Janis</span> American artist (born 1959)

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.

References

  1. Lawson, Mallory (2009). "jra participates in ARTomatic" (PDF). James Renwick Alliance quarterly (Summer): 21. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2014.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. Maltese Cross
  3. Arabesque 1 and 2
  4. Fynes, Gene (18 February 2010). "Metro Unveils Station Artwork". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 18, 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  5. Bressi, Todd W.; Cohen, Dr. Michele; Jenkins, Suzan (2016). Montgomery County Public Art Roadmap: Creating A Vibrant Public Art Ecosystem in Montgomery County. Montgomery County Public Arts Trust Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. p. 25. Retrieved 21 July 2017.