Robert Braczyk
Robert Braczyk is a sculptor who lives and works in New York City. He grew up in central Massachusetts, where a branch of the family ran a casket factory. At sixteen he began work at a furniture factory with two of his uncles. Following high school he studied cabinetmaking at Worcester Industrial Technical Institute for two years. From 1966 to1969 he served in the US Army Exhibit Unit in Washington DC where he ran their fabrication department. In 1974 he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts cum laude in sculpture from Boston University.
As an environmentalist Braczyk calls attention to climate change through carved, dynamic sculptures that are inspired by the origin of the material they are created from, the tree. The branches that are used in the pieces provide a variety of long gently tapering rods, sweeping curves, jogs and forked joints. Though selection, recombining, and mutability are the artist’s strategy, these characteristic growth patterns assert themselves making sculpture from such components a direct dialogue with nature. Braczyk states, “The material itself is a subject.”
Braczyk exhibited his work at the Prince Street Gallery in New York City, has taught sculpture, drawing and artist’s anatomy at the New York Academy of Art and the 92nd Street Y. He won the Daniel Chester French Medal and the Greer Prize at the National Academy of Design. For many years he worked at the Saidenberg Gallery in New York City. In 1999 when the gallery closed, he started a business repairing antique furniture. At various times Robert Braczyk has worked in antique building restoration, as a boat builder, a finish and rough carpenter, art handler, toy designer, framer, and in the Awards and Recognition Industry.
Website: robertbraczyk.com
Artwork Available on Artsy