jOE SULTAN

celebration of the abstract : Holiday

november 21 - december 20, 2025

I work in sculpture in several ways, but I am particularly drawn to an additive process —like a collage or a building — by placing one piece upon another until a work takes shape. Unlike subtractive sculpture, in which a form is revealed by carving into marble or wood, additive sculpture allows me to look not only at the material but through it, into the spaces it creates. While the process is hardly new, I am fascinated by the interplay between the spaces within a piece and the space that surrounds it.

I begin with random sticks and slabs of wood, assembling them without a predetermined outcome. As the work develops, associations emerge. Initially unintended, they propel the sculpture forward, guiding what I add, change, or leave alone. Through this process, chance gradually gives way to intention; an open-ended exploration becomes something deliberate.

Trained as an architect, I came to value the quality of space above materials or refinement of detail. I was always searching for small moments of grace—moments that might open the eye and mind to a new way of seeing by quietly defying expectation.

In these small wooden sculptures, I pursue that possibility: a moment when ordinary materials and the spaces between them transcend their physical construction and become something more.