PUBLIC WORKS PRESS
Clark Derbes, Radial, 15 x 20" (2016)
Woodcut
CLARK DERBES was born in New Orleans, LA and raised in Baton Rouge. Derbes was exposed at an early age to the vernacular craft arts of the south, including; vibrantly painted carvings, quilts, and the beaded pageantry of Mardi Gras. These influences, along with the road-side chainsaw carvings witnessed in Vermont, collided with his practice of ab-ex geometric painting. His work employs a vocabulary of forms & shapes adapted from familiar architectures translated into sculptures of carved wood finished with a variety of complex patina processes or vivid color, sometimes in combination and all driven by his straightforwardness and skill. His current body of carved and poly-chromed wood sculpture are a synthesis of these influences; a ‘gumbo’ of American art history stirred with the wooden spoon of folk tradition. Derbes earned a BFA at Louisiana State University and exhibits extensively throughout the US. He currently lives and works in Vermont with his wife, artist Wylie Sofia Garcia, and their two children.
--THE SCHOOLHOUSE GALLERY
