C. Emerson Fine Arts :: React April 4-26, 2008

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React April 4 - 26, 2008

“Do artists have a choice but to create? A choice not to express what lives inside them? Would it even be possible to deny such energy its rghtful path and still maintain one’s sanity? There is no choosing, we are but receivers of some incredible signal, or unaware miners of hidden treasures. Ours is only to live, and to create.”

So says Frank Strunk III, a self-taught, American artist with a studio in Florida.

Born in a suburb of Washington, D.C., in 1964, Frank, an industrial aesthete, has developed a signature style that has earned him accolades as one of our nation’s most innovative, rising artists. In Frank’s world, acid-washed galvanized steel, sheet metal, rusted nails, tools, working parts and gears are the conduits of his art. “My work is a fertile collusion of the rigidity and order of geometry and the organic dance and palette of rust,” he says. Described as ironic, witty, fun, spiritual, imaginative, kinetic, unexpected and truly original, his industrial-infused art has traversed and intersected with the fine arts, functional art, wearable art, interior decor and architecture. Frank‘s art speaks about issues that affect us on levels that we don't always look at with the clearest of eyes: Work, religion, relationships, power – all of these loaded subjects are the focus of his work.

Covertly spiritual and intentionally philosophical, Frank Strunk uses his background, skill and love for all things old and mechanized to craft art that speaks in metaphor.

Frank believes that as a society, our careers have taken precedence over our “selves” making our lives little more than a mechanism of a larger, thoughtless, cold “machine.” By dissecting this culture, his art reveals the ways we have stifled self-expression and how our lives have become disconnected. “My voice as an artist speaks primarily through the industrial aesthetic. I have always been fascinated by old machines, motors, mechanisms, and rusted metal. I try to take the functions of these machines and pose them against the functions of our lives. I feel, as a byproduct of our culture, we spend far too much time as willing participants in this machine, and as a result we miss out on richer, fuller lives," he says. He wants his art to serve a higher purpose – perhaps act as an itinerary for others to discover their true path, find their soul’s purpose, to leave the “machine” behind. “Do what you love. Live a soulful life,” says the artist.