Nicholas Legeros (born February 27, 1955, in Edina, Minnesota) is an American (Minnesotan) bronze sculptor. Working from his studio building Blue Ribbon Bronze in Northeast Minneapolis, Nick has created over 500 sculptures in his career. His most prominent works can be found in the Twin Cities and Hudson, Wisconsin. In addition to his work as a sculptor, Nick is an active artist advocate and has been president of the Society of Minnesota Sculptors [1] (1988-1995), president of the Northeast Minneapolis Artists Association [2] (2007-2009), and served on many boards including the Northeast Community Development Corporation. [3]
Legeros grew up in Edina, Minnesota, and first encountered an artistic dilemma in the 4th grade. His class was asked to create small sculptures, and Nick spent much time crafting a small head, which won the admiration of much of his classmates. Legeros, in what little time remained, fashioned an elephant which he turned in for extra credit. The teacher gave his head a "C," while the elephant was given an "A." Not satisfied by his teacher's justification, he developed a curiosity for art and the distinguishing constitutive elements of good art. [4]
Legeros received his B.A. in Studio Art at Gustavus Adolphus College in 1977, where learned bronze sculpture from notable American Sculptor Paul Granlund (October 6, 1925 - September 15, 2003). He would continue to study and work with Granlund from 1978 to 1980, before pursuing his M.F.A., which he earned at the University of Minnesota in 1983. “The careful mentoring and encouragement I received from sculptor Paul Granlund made my career choice possible. Paul gave me the training, the knowledge and the benefit of his menutefs of experience. He showed me what the life of a sculptor was like.” [5] His education and experiences stewarded an artistic style that is welcoming and personal, and integrates a sense of spirituality without reference to a particular religion.
Working primarily on a commission basis, Legeros has worked with a variety of clients for over 30 years. His work can be found at hospitals (Healing Waters (2001), Hudson Hospital in Hudson, Wisconsin), churches (We Dare Not Fence the Spirit (1993), Unity Unitarian Church in St Paul, Minnesota), universities (Father Terrance Murphy (2004), in conjunction with Paul Granlund, at University of St. Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota), city and local governments (Dreams of our Children (1989), at Lyton Park in St Paul, Minnesota), libraries (Cosgrove Memorial (1996), Cosgrove Community Library in Le Sueur, Minnesota), cemeteries (Ossuary at Roselawn (2007) [6] Roselawn Cemetery in Roseville, Minnesota), corporate collections (Generations (2003), Lifetouch Headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minnesota), and a number of private individuals. Commissioned pieces allow Nick to create a piece that fits the vision or wishes of particular clients. Since 1992 Nick has held the position of President and C.E.O. of Nicholas Legeros Inc., his own business. For a map of public works in the Twin Cities, see below.
Legeros taught throughout the Twin Cities prior to owning his own studio space. From 1981-2002 he was an Artist-in-Residence at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts in Wayzata, Minnesota. He has also been a faculty member of the art department at Breck School in Golden Valley, Minnesota (1993-1994), Community Faculty at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis, Minnesota (1988-1993), and an instructor at the Edina Art Center (1988-1993).
Blue Ribbon Bronze is the name of his studio and gallery, a free standing building set next to the historic Grain Belt Brewery and Bottling House in Northeast Minneapolis. Equipped with a foundry for bronze casting, Nick creates sculptures entirely on-site and frequently welcomes visitors for bronze pours. Blue Ribbon Bronze is a destination at Art-a-Whirl, the largest open studio tour in the U.S. [7] He can cast pieces of any size, the largest of which to date Saint Joseph (2009) measured over 17 feet tall. [8] Blue Ribbon Bronze is located at 84 14th Avenue NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413, and is open to the public daily.
A number of his works have attracted attention because of their local and artistic significance. [9] His portrait of Sid Hartman (2010), located outside the Target Center in Downtown Minneapolis, has become a cultural landmark of the much-traveled walkway to Target Field. [10] [11]
His life-size Goldy Gopher for the University of Minnesota was created in 2013 [12] and installed outside Coffman Union. The University in a published statement expects that: "A Goldy Gopher statue will impact school pride and spirit by allowing the campus community to interact with this iconic symbol on a daily basis, serve as a common area to gather outside, and create traditions that will have long-lasting impressions on today's student population, as well as future generations to come." The large size of the work is also described in the article: "The bronze Goldy statue will stand six feet three inches high on Coffman Memorial Union's front plaza. The granite block 'M' will span sixty-three inches in width, twenty-four inches in depth and forty-eight inches in height." [8]
A recent and ongoing artistic collaboration between Legeros and local glass artist Michael Boyd at FOCI Minnesota Center for Glass Arts has brought a different kind of attention to his work because of its combination of molten glass and molten bronze. In an interview with Nancy Sartor at KFAI, Boyd describes the process as unique and significant in that he has never heard of the two media used together in ways Nick and he are exploring. Nick adds, "As far as we know, nobody has been doing this work at all." The interview concludes with his reflection that "We're throwing the traditions out the window and [seeing] what else we can do. What could be better?" [13]
In 2015, Legeros was commissioned by the women and men of Northwest Airlines to commemorate the airline and the leadership of Past President and CEO Donald Nyrop. Two sculptures were created, "Dreams Take Flight" and "Glamorous Days of Flight," and are located at Centennial Lakes Park in Edina, MN. The sculpture was dedicated in May 2016, and was featured in Edina Magazine's March 2017 issue. [14]
For a map of public works located in the Twin Cities, click here.
Edina is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 53,494 at the 2020 census, making it the 18th most populous city in Minnesota.
The year 2002 in art involves various significant events.
Goldy Gopher is the mascot for the University of Minnesota and the associated sports teams, known as the Golden Gophers, as well as the 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2018 UCA Mascot National Champion. During the year, Goldy makes over 1000 appearances and is at virtually all home games for University teams, usually wearing the appropriate sporting attire. The mascot is based on the thirteen-lined ground squirrel, colloquially referred to as a “gopher” in Minnesota.
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United States. Its permanent collection includes world-famous works that embody the highest levels of artistic achievement, spanning about 20,000 years and representing the world's diverse cultures across six continents. The museum has seven curatorial areas: Arts of Africa & the Americas; Contemporary Art; Decorative Arts, Textiles & Sculpture; Asian Art; Paintings; Photography and New Media; and Prints and Drawings.
Paul T. Granlund was an American sculptor. His creative career spanned more than 50 years and more than 650 different works. Most of his work is figurative and made from bronze. His patrons included colleges, hospitals, Lutheran churches, and other institutions.
Paul Fjelde was a noted American sculptor and educator.
Jakob Henrik Gerhard Fjelde was a Norwegian-born American sculptor. He is remembered as both a prolific portraitist and the creator of public monuments. One of his better known works is the one dedicated to the 1st Minnesota Infantry (1897) located at Gettysburg Battlefield where its 262 members suffered 215 casualties.
John Karl Daniels was a Norwegian-American sculptor.
Gloria June Tew was an American abstract sculptor known for her work in marble, bronze and steel. Tew's sculptures are found in institutions, museums, churches and private collections including, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden. She resided in Minneapolis.
Henry Bergh is a statue by American artist James H. Mahoney located at the Wisconsin Humane Society in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The bronze statue portrays Henry Bergh, the father of the humane movement in the United States, holding a cane in his proper right hand and petting a dog with a bandaged paw with his proper left hand. It was created in 1891 and stands 9 feet high.
George Washington is a statue by the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon from the late 18th century. Based on a life mask and other measurements of George Washington taken by Houdon, it is considered one of the most accurate depictions of the subject. The original sculpture is located in the rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, and it has been copied extensively, with one copy standing in the United States Capitol Rotunda.
Bill Mack is a contemporary American sculptor and painter born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Abraham Lincoln, The Hoosier Youth is a heroic bronze sculpture by American artist Paul Manship and was commissioned in 1928 by the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company for its headquarters in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The statue is 12.5 feet (3.8 m) tall and sits atop a pedestal designed by architect Benjamin Wistar Morris and a granite base. The sculpture depicts a youthful Abraham Lincoln during the time he lived in Indiana. The Lincoln figure wears a handmade shirt, buckskin trousers, and boots. He is seated on a tree stump and holds a book. An ax leans against his leg and a dog is seated beside him. Manship also sculpted four bronze allegorical bas reliefs, one for each side of the pedestal, to represent traits associated with Lincoln: Charity, Fortitude, Justice and Patriotism. The statue was dedicated on 16 September 1932.
W. Stanley "Sandy" Proctor is an American painter and sculptor in Florida who makes bronze figures. He was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2006.
Brian Hanlon is a classically trained master sculptor and founder of Hanlon Sculpture Studio. He has created over 550 public and private art pieces since 1987. Hanlon is a nationally acclaimed artist from Toms River, New Jersey, specializing in commissioned larger-than-life-size, to-scale bronze sculptures, reliefs, trophies, plaques and awards. He is known for developing a distinguishable style of movement in contemporary American realism sculpture.
Hiawatha and Minnehaha is a sculpture by Jacob Fjelde that has stood in Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis since the early twentieth century. Now a popular fixture of the park, its placement there was originally controversial.
Monica E. Rudquist is a ceramic artist working out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is known for her distinctive "spiraling shapes" and works primarily in porcelain. In addition, her work features wheel-thrown functional wares as well as large-scale, abstract wall installations.
Evelyn Raymond was an American sculptor. Raymond lived in Duluth, Minnesota. In 1928 she received a scholarship to the Minneapolis School of Art.
Gwendolyn "Gwen" Gillen was an American sculptor and artist. Her best known works include a bronze sculpture of actress Mary Tyler Moore tossing her Tam o' shanter hat into the air as a homage to the final scene of opening credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Gillen's life-size sculpture of Moore, dedicated in 2002 on the Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, is one of the city's most recognizable landmarks and a "symbol of Minneapolis". Her other well known pieces include a 4-foot bronze sculpture of Gertie the Duck, which was installed on the Wisconsin Avenue bridge in Milwaukee in 1997.
Amy Toscani is a Minnesota-based sculptor whose large scale works are informed by an arts and crafts aesthetic evocative of childhood. Amy Toscani was born in 1963 in Dayton, Ohio. She received both her Bachelor of Fine Arts and her Master of Fine Arts from Ohio University.