By Nardos Taeme
The Scene staff
John Zimmerman uses his sculptures to make a connection between past and present.
“I make contemporary objects, objects that are indicative of innovation, discoveries, science and general modern-day issues, and I give them the texture and glazing of geologic strata,” he said.
Zimmerman teaches ceramics at the University of New Mexico-Gallop.
He is displaying his work at The Gallery of Contemporary Art at Forest Park through March 1 in a show called “John Zimmerman: Origins of Strata.”
He was invited by gallery director Matthew Isaacson, an instructor and coordinator of the ceramics programs.
“This is an opportunity for students to see large-scale hand-building techniques from a professional practice, an artist who is also an educator,” he said.
Zimmerman makes sculptures out of clay for physical and conceptual reasons.
“If I’m talking about this idea of geologic strata in billions of years of history, then clay is a really good vehicle to talk about that,” he said.
“It is basically just the earth’s crust that’s been broken down for billions of years, so that creates that connection with a deep past, and I use that to build contemporary objects.”
Isaacson become familiar with Zimmerman’s work this year through a friend.
“The blaze technique is extraordinarily different, pretty unusual,” Issacson said. “He uses a technique called ‘strata’ or “\’stratification’ to (make it) look pretty bleary. It’s pretty neat.”
Zimmerman became interested in ceramics in high school and studied it in college.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in ceramics from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and a master’s in spatial art from San Jose University in California.
“Right after grad school, I started some teaching and (worked at a few other jobs in different parts of the country), which led me to New Mexico,” he said. “I’ve been here for six years.
Zimmerman finds inspiration for his sculptures from a variety of sources.
One of his main influences is scientist and author Jared Diamond, who specializes in macro history, which studies the world for long periods of time.
“It began to be interesting because it started to coincide with a lot of my own thoughts and questions, (such as) what am I doing and where I’m going and how it affects other people,” Zimmerman said.
The Gallery of Contemporary Art is on the first floor of the library building. It hosts several exhibits each year that are open to the public. Admission is free.
Fine arts major Miles Boyd, a gallery employee, encourages students to attend these shows.
“It’s definitely a great way to see different levels of art skills and to appreciate the art,” he said.
The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, visit http://zimmermansculpture.com/.