Exhibition

Sam Perry’s new wood sculptures of enlarged Knots and Tangles pose visual questions that are not answered by magnification but rather are made more complex by enlarging the facts. Viewers puzzle over whether the snarled knots are a natural formation that Perry has isolated and enhanced or whether they are carved and joined from separate branches. The mystery that arises from the eye’s inability to follow the threads or solve the puzzle provides a tension that recurs in much of Perry’s work. Equally compelling is his ability to create a sense of movement in a static medium. The loose ends that escape the tangles can be read as arms or legs that balance, step, or support the core knot.

Perry was born in Kailua, Hawaii and received his BFA and MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA. He has had exhibitions at the Oakland Museum of California at City Center and is in the collections of the di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA and the Runnymede Sculpture Farm in Woodside, CA. He currently lives and works in Oakland, CA.