Our next Artist You Need To Know is Cal Lane. She “is an internationally acclaimed sculptor known for turning ordinary objects into lacy artworks. To date, her pieces stand alone in capturing a delicacy and intricacy quite apart from her closest contemporaries. Lane’s tapestries, cut into harsh and often preternaturally large steel and iron structures, are sensual, alluring and deeply effeminate.” (from her site)
Critic Robin Peck offered the following about Lane’s aesthetic: “Lane understands sculpture differently: clothed in a flickering historical shadow, it is a veiled play of contrasts alternately concealed and revealed.”
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Untitled (Shovel), 2022
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Astute Class, 2021
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Pantie Chain, 2018
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Big Panties, 2017
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Veiled Hood Stain #1, 2014
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Veiled Hood Stain #5, 2014
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a Master degree in Fine Arts in sculpture from State University of New York. Her unique aesthetic is informed by how she initially worked as a hairdresser in her mother’s salon in Vancouver Island, and “Lane soon became interested in exploring gender roles and conceptual art.”
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Heartwrench, 2016
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Willow Warhead II, 2011
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Grave Invasion, 2011
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Messenger of Combat I, 2011
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Sweet Spill, 2010
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Oil Tank Map of the World, 2008
Lane’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally including Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, France and the USA. Notable solo exhibitions have been mounted at Art Mûr, Montreal (QC, 2017), The Picture Gallery, New Hampshire (NE), Art Mûr Leipzig (DE, 2015), Burlington City Arts (VT), Sharjah Art Museum (UAE, 2016), Yukon Arts Centre (2015), the Art Gallery of Mississauga, the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (both 2015), the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park (2008) and the Wynick / Tuck Gallery (2004). She was awarded the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in 2007, the Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship in 2006 and was the winner of the 2001 International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture.
In 2014, Lane installed a public artwork at The Digs, part of the New York Subway system at Knickerbocker Station in Brooklyn (NY).
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Pantie Can, 2016
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Pantie stains 8, 2016
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Veiled Hood #2 2014
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Veiled Hood #7, 2014
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Installation view, Guttersnipe, 2012
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Oil Fired Tanks, 2009
Lane was trained as a welder before studying art: frequently working with found and discarded industrial objects (dumpsters, oil drums, and I-beams, among other detritus), she transfigures them “into improbably lacey, delicate works of sculpture. She has been compared to Richard Serra, famous for his propped, torqued, and spiraling steel sculptures. Unlike Serra, however, Lane cuts ornate patterns into the steel, opening up its surface to light and air….she challenges gender stereotypes by combining the “masculinity” of steel and welding with the “femininity” of lace-like, decorative patterning.” In speaking about her reconfiguration of objects that are loaded with previous meanings (such as her work Fossil Fuels), Lane states that they come with their own narrative, a narrative that on some level we can all connect to.” (from Artsy)
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Shovels, 2016
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Fossil Fuel, 2009
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Untitled (Wheelbarrow), 2007
Much more of Cal Lane’s unique sculptural works can be seen here. The article by Robin Peck cited earlier in this essay can be enjoyed here.