A polymath whose work encompasses sculpture, drawing, and architectural land art, Stephen Talasnik manifests an elaborate and evocative aesthetic vision. Inspired by visionary artists and architects such as Leonardo da Vinci, Giovanni Piranesi, Gustav Eiffel, Antoni GaudY, and Buckminster Fuller, Talasnik presents a fantastical world that looks as archaeological as it does futuristic.
Unearthed presents a broad spectrum of Talasnik's work spanning the last decade, starting with floating sculptures commissioned by the Denver Botanic Garden, continuing on through projects at Storm King Art Center and Russel Wright Design Center, and culminating with a 30-foot-high timber sculpture at the new, highly lauded Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana. The publication of Unearthed coincides with the first exhibition at Tippet Rise devoted to a single artist. Numerous examples of Talasnik's drawings are also included, as well as smaller-scale indoor and outdoor sculptures in diverse materials.
Several key contributors help interpret diverse angles of Talasnik's practice, including renowned art critic Phyllis Tuchman, architect and critic Michael Sorkin, theorist David Wittenberg, and the late architect Lebbeus Woods, a close friend to Talasnik. Through these essays and hundreds of reproductions of Talasnik's spellbinding work, Unearthed presents the extraordinary visions of an artist on the cusp of broad recognition.
