|
|
|
|
Artist Exhibitions:
Coming Soon!
|
|
Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
|
|
Artist Reviews:
Coming Soon!
|
|
Collections:
Coming Soon!
|
|
Commissions:
Coming Soon!
|
|
|
Artist Statement for Mike Kaplan
|
|
|
Mike Kaplan, born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1954, is a designer, woodturner and craftsman. In 1976 he left South Africa to study graphic and industrial design in London and returned to Cape Town in 1979 where he began his career in advertising, as an art director and designer. In 1990 he took up woodturning as a hobby and four years later resigned and moved to a smallholding in Knysna in order to focus his energies on woodturning as well as being a freelance graphic designer.
During 1995 he was part of a joint exhibition in Lindau, Germany as well as one in Vienna. In November 1996 an exhibition was held at Head Interiors, the largest Design Consultancy in Johannesburg. He has since exhibited at Knysna Fine Art and the Knysna Art Gallery. Mike sells his work from "The Natural Edge", a woodturning gallery situated at the Knysna Quays, which he and 3 fellow woodturners founded in 1999.
He is a founder member of the Western Cape Woodturners Association and the Knysna Woodturner's Guild. He has given several talks on design at the South African Woodturning Seminars as well as being a regular demonstrator.
“I try to find in the wood the best that it has to offer and combine this with a form that is in keeping with the grain, figure and nature of it. However, for me design is
paramount. If a piece lacks good design, I don't believe it works, no matter how stunning the wood might be. I have tried to create a general style in my work, using mainly indigenous hardwoods, that is my own and which also reflects something of its African origin.”
“Through my work, I am trying to express my creative energies in the medium which I relate to best. I believe my work reveals my love of nature and an empathy with wood.
All I want from my work is for my and the wood's energy to connect with people so they get a feeling of how I felt when I created the piece.” Today, Mike lives and works on a smallholding in the village of Sedgefield, 25 km outside Knysna.
|
|
contact artist
