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M i d - M a n h a t t a n L i b r a r y

presents
 

An Artist Dialogue

Michael Kukla and Florence Neal

 
Saturday December 19, 2009
2:30 p.m. on the 6th floor

Mid-Manhattan Library
The New York Public Library
40th Street and 5th Avenue
New York , NY 10016
212-340-0871

www.nypl.org

( directions )
 

Elevators access the 6th floor after 2p.m.
All events are FREE and subject to last minute change or cancellation.

Michael Kukla and Florence Neal will discuss Shades of Light his site-specific Art in the Windows installation at Mid-Manhattan Library. They will also talk about his work, and development of his sculptures from the drawing process, as well as Kukla’s graphic design contributions to Kentler International Drawing Space and the mission of this thriving space dedicated to drawing and serving the public.

Michael Kukla born in Prague , Czech Republic , moved to the US with his family in 1971 as a small boy. He studied painting at Castleton State College in Vermont where he received his BFA in sculpture, and at Hochshule der Kuenste in Berlin , Germany . His work has been exhibited in the US and Europe and was featured live on Czech TV as the first American artist to exhibit in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia since the end of world war II. His drawings are currently in the traveling exhibit Density curated by Marilyn Simms of the Zimmerli, Museum, which will open at the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, AK in March 2010. Among his many commissions for sculpture, he was approached by Apple Computer to create marble pedestals for the full line of Apple computers in 1992. Kukla is also a graphic designer and the owner of Riveredge Design. His numerous New York clients include the venerated New York Athletic Club, the University Club and the Ronald McDonald House.

Artist Florence Neal has been Co-founder and Director of the Kentler International Drawing Space, in Red Hook, Brooklyn since 1990. The non-profit gallery is dedicated to bringing innovative drawings and works on paper to public. The programs include 4 to 6 exhibitions a year of the work by emerging and under-recognized artists, the Flatfiles with work by over 140 artists, and K.I.D.S. Art Education. She initiated the exhibitions program at Brooklyn Public Library as Exhibitions Coordinator from 2002-2004. She was curator of The Art Lot (2000-2003), juror for Drawings on Alabama (2006), and recently juried Brooklyn for 440 Gallery. Her own drawings, prints and public art installations have been exhibited in the US and abroad. Neal’s wind sculpture Dance of Life is a public art commission for the University of Alabama in Birmingham . She has collaborated with writer Wendy Walker on a number of print/text projects including Screen Memories at Brooklyn Public Library and ...a different forest , a public art commission for Omaha Public Library. She is the recipient of a Pollock Krasner fellowship and several residencies including Fundación Valparaíso, Women’s Studio Workshop and Hambidge Center for the Arts.