Carl Reed

Discover the versatility of steel in this mixed-media workshop exploring contemporary sculpture. Open to all experience levels, this course demonstrates how mastering a new process can unlock unimagined aesthetic possibilities. Beginners will learn fundamental techniques to cut, shape, and join steel, discovering the metal's ability to appear everything from aggressive and durable to delicate and organic. Experienced Artists new to sculpture will learn to translate their ideas into 3D compositions, practicing how to “draw in space” and ensure structural coherence from every angle. Seasoned Sculptors can push their boundaries by integrating steel with contrasting materials like wood, leather, cloth, or paper. Instruction is tailored through individual critiques, technical demonstrations, and group visual analysis. Whether you stick to traditional metalwork or experiment with mixed media, you are encouraged to work at the pace and style that best suits your interests.

Throughout art history, steel has been associated with industry, strength, and even violence. This workshop challenges those associations by exploring ways to make steel appear visually delicate, and by creating new meanings through its combination with materials of contrasting characteristics. Participants engage in exercises that address both technical and creative questions, including how steel is cut, shaped, and joined, as well as how to rethink its role in a composition—treating steel as a secondary, supporting element rather than the primary focus. Through experimentation, students learn to challenge material assumptions and expand the expressive potential of steel in contemporary sculpture. We explore the aesthetic and technical consequences of combining steel with soft, vulnerable, contradictory, and unexpected materials.

Throughout art history, steel has been associated with industry, violence, and strength. This workshop challenges such connections by investigating ways steel can become visually delicate, and by inventing new meanings and visual relationships through combining steel with materials with opposite characteristics. Exercises address technical and creative inquiries regarding how steel is cut, shaped, and physically joined, and how to challenge material assumptions if steel becomes a secondary, rather than primary, compositional element. We explore the aesthetic and technical consequences of combining steel with soft, vulnerable, contradictory, and unexpected materials.

Throughout art history, steel is a material commonly associated with industry, violence, and strength. This workshop challenges such connections by investigating ways that steel can become visually delicate, and by inventing new meanings and visual relationships through combining steel with materials with opposite characteristics. Exercises address technical and creative inquiries regarding how steel is cut, shaped, and physically joined, and how to challenge material assumptions if steel becomes a secondary, rather than primary, compositional element. We explore the aesthetic and technical consequences of combining steel with soft, vulnerable, contradictory, and unexpected materials.

Throughout the history of art, steel is a material commonly associated with industry, violence, and strength. This workshop challenges such connections by investigating ways that steel can become visually delicate, and inventing new meanings and visual relationships through combining steel with materials that contain opposite characteristics. Exercises address both technical and creative inquiries regarding how steel is cut, shaped, and physically joined, as well as how to challenge material assumptions when steel becomes a secondary rather than primary compositional element. We explore the aesthetic and technical consequences of combining steel with soft, vulnerable, contradictory, and unexpected materials.

Delve into material experimentation, idea development and risk-taking while working in metals. This workshop provides an opportunity to make use of a well-equipped shop to further skill sets and students experiment with metal and drive their work to the next level. The course teaches the tools and tricks for welding and metal fabrication, such as bending, cutting, curling, braking, heating, smashing and drawing. Surface treatment, as it pertains to finishes, light and installation methods, is also covered. The goal is to help students build a foundation of skills so that they may explore, experiment and use these skills confidently in future projects.

Throughout the history of art, steel is a material commonly associated with industry, violence and strength. This workshop challenges such connections, investigating ways that steel can become visually delicate, and inventing new meanings and visual relationships through combining steel with materials that contain opposite characteristics. Exercises address both technical and creative inquiries regarding how steel is cut, shaped and physically joined and how to challenge material assumptions if steel becomes a secondary, rather than a primary, compositional element. We explore the aesthetic and technical consequences of combining steel with soft, vulnerable, contradictory and unexpected materials.

For 4,000 years humans have been making steel. Often associated with industry, strength and violence, this workshop seeks to challenge those intrinsic attributes. Students explore the alloy’s visual delicacy as well as its relationship with its aesthetic “opposites”—soft, vulnerable and unexpected materials. Exercises address both technical and creative inquiries regarding cutting, shaping and welding. One asks: What are the technical and conceptual assumptions we make when using steel? What happens when it becomes a secondary compositional element instead of a primary foundation?