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The relationship between art and architecture is something like water to the ocean. Architecture is the structure that contains our spaces, our communities, and our ambitions; art is the fluid medium that reflects our emotions and instincts, our need for beauty and the sublime. When operating in harmony, the sum is greater than its parts, affecting viewers on a visceral level. The best examples of art and architecture together produce ease, contemplation, structure that is supportive and uplifting, stable and reassuring, yet accommodating to the organic human form.
Working strongly with color, reflection, and inspiration from nature, Michael Curry (https://www.michaelcurrymosaics.com/) creates unique mosaic wall sculptures for commercial, corporate, and private settings. With materials like silvered glass and acrylic resin, intricately cut and layered, these pieces exude luxury and finesse that creates a richness of place. It’s the kind of work you should view from many angles as it comes alive with light, changing form from each direction. There is a soothing repetition to the work, a kind of meditative appeal inviting mental reflection. Light is drawn in and fractured outward. Color and pattern create depth, illusion, and a mysterious science of light.
As a self-proclaimed “weird kid”, Curry's childhood bedroom was his earliest studio, where he wrote stories and music, played many instruments, and created drawings and dioramas. Like many kids, he designed with Lincoln Logs, Legos, and PlayPlax blocks with total creative freedom. His earliest commissioned works were from a local schoolgirl who solicited drawings in exchange for candy. Somehow his future as a commissioned artist seemed more pre-destined than most, although in high school and college Curry moved towards music and theater. He obtained a graduate degree and went on to have a substantial career in performing arts, and eventually the Broadway stage. Curry spent years on the road touring nationally and internationally, living out of a suitcase as the performing arts often demand. Suitcases make little room for art supplies, and it wasn’t until he came home to NYC more permanently that his visual arts career took root.
Synchronistically, it was his performance work and the production of Cabaret that eventually brought things full circle for the artist. Curry moved back to New York for a run on Broadway, inheriting some furniture from a friend. This led to a midnight lightning strike of inspiration, to create a mosaic project out of an abandoned dining room table. When Curry reached out to his cast-mates in search of advice, he was directed toward Bobby Pearce, a regular guest of the Rosie O’Donnell show feature “Craft Corner.” Pearce taught Curry a few basic techniques to get started and donated glass tile samples to the project. The mosaic table was, and still is, the foundation of everything Curry does as an artist. It serves as his work table and sparked the growth of his second career.
Fast forward to 2017, when Curry, brought in by Clodagh of Clodagh Design, is tasked to create a glowing mosaic feature wall in the lobby of Jackson Park, a new Tishman Speyer residential property in New York City. It was to become a focal point, to promote the health of the residents, and to express qualities such as “subtlety, warmth, smokiness, and energy through shape.” Artists are accustomed to leaping into the unknown, the generative “push,” which Curry describes in this case, as a juggernaut. The process lasted over a year. It required expansion. OSHA certification. Team building. Working in a tower under construction with many things happening at once. Legal contracts, extra insurance. The *special* challenge of installing over a counter that had to be put in first, leaving just a narrow aisle for access. Adaptations were made, systems were built, a custom ladder was designed. These are the demands of architectural-scale work, which necessitates research and planning on a level beyond the ordinary.
The result became a 12.5 x 15.5 foot mosaic sculptural wall in ambers and greys with translucent materials and diffused light. The work sparkles and glows, recedes and moves forward. It incorporates the natural silicate crystal, mica, which is thought to remove stagnant energy and helps stabilize energy fields. The mica has been processed with resin, pressed into sheets and cut as if it were glass. When combined with a waterfall, fireplace, and cabana seating, the wall is the center of a cohesive design, an urban oasis.