Rising Stars: Meet Duncan Sherwood-Forbes

Today we’d like to introduce you to Duncan Sherwood-Forbes.

Hi Duncan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My obsession with art began when I was a child growing up in Lincoln, Massachusetts. I was obsessed – I mean OBSESSED with drawing, and I would scribble drawings wherever I could.

I was lucky to grow up a mile from the DeCordova museum, which allowed me access to figure drawing and cartooning classes in middle school as well as a wealth of beautiful art to appreciate and train my eye. I attended the arts-centric prep school Concord Academy for high school, and participated in the Putney School for the Arts summer intensive program yearly. I first began creating wire sculpture at 15 after being given a copy of Calder’s Circus by an instructor at Putney, and I immediately fell in love with the ability of wire to draw in space. I didn’t realize it then, but that medium was going to define my career.

In 2006 at the age of 17, I began showing my work at the Featherstone Gallery’s summer art market on Martha’s Vineyard under the name Wired Sculpture Studios, and I had my first two-person juried show in Concord, Massachusetts. This early financial success was a huge boost to my confidence, and it solidified my desire to pursue art as a career.

After a gap year spent studying architecture and language in Barcelona and taking classes at Mass Art, I went on to study sculpture and psychology at Washington University in St. Louis in 2009. While in college I showed my wire work at small galleries, and participated in a juried art fair highlighting craft at the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum. After becoming disillusioned with the art school and its lack of instruction in the career side of an art practice, I withdrew in 2013 shortly before graduation and returned home to Massachusetts. I worked as a docent at the Institute of Contemporary Art where I created and led gallery talks for visitors while continuing to refine and sell my wire work, with a focus on portraiture.

In 2014 I moved to Los Angeles and reestablished Wired Sculpture Studios. Today I continue my wire practice while also keeping my foundation strong through weekly figure-drawing sessions. I’m also experimenting in other media such as ceramics and poetry, and my discoveries there inevitably find their way back into my studio practice.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has been anything but a smooth road. Being a full time artist is a challenge, it can be very feast or famine. I worry that new experiments won’t resonate with collectors as much as my old work, but so far I have been lucky enough that each collection tends to sell out.

I have faced many challenges – working with predatory galleries or fairs, sending large works through the mail only to have them disappear and then jumping through hoops to get reimbursed from insurance, finding appropriate studio space in supportive communities.

Through sheer hard work and perseverance, my career has grown over the years, and while I know there will be tough times in this uncertain career I have faith in myself and my work.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in wire sculpture. Wire has been a continuous thread through my career as an artist, I have done my ten thousand hours ten times over. My style of wire sculpture is more akin to drawing than to sculpture – I see the medium as a way to draw through the air, to take my love of line drawing and transform it into animated and lively living drawings that come off the picture plane to dance and move in the air.

There are very few people who do my style of wire sculpture – all one line, with a focus on portraiture and figuration. It is my unique style, the result of years of experimentation and work. I often work from life, sculpting and resculpting forms until I distill them down to their essence, to something that captures the person while simultaneously taking advantage of my classical training in form and balance.

What I’m most proud of is my perseverance. I have moved away from art, only to return to it no matter what. Being an artist is hard, but for me not being an artist is even harder.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Perseverance and the willingness to think and act outside of the box!

On the art side, myopically pursuing my love of wire despite the criticisms of others has helped me focus on my craft and art and nurture my unique medium. When I receive criticism, I try to “observe without judgment” – to take in what I deem useful and to reject what I deem non-useful.

On the business side, bucking the traditional relationship between artists and galleries to pursue my own path has helped me control my own success. Galleries have promoted the concept of business being “dirty” for artists so that they can keep control over the financial aspect of the art world. I embrace selling my work directly to collectors, and from the beginning this has pissed off more established artists and curators – after all, the system benefits from gatekeeping and alliances. Through embracing creating my own relationships with collectors and the international online art community, I have found my own way to success despite burning some bridges with galleries that have promised me success in trade for exclusive representation.

But this is the way I need to work. I love nothing more than meeting people and sharing my love of creating art with those who love to appreciate it. Some of these have turned into lifelong friendships with collectors who come back again and again to add more of my work to their collections.

Pricing:

• Wire Portraits – $300 – $800
• Large scale welded work – $1000-$6000

Contact Info:

• Website: wiredsculpturestudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wired_sculpture_studios/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wiredsculpturestudios/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncan-sherwood-forbes-35a8724a/

Image Credits
All images copyright Duncan Sherwood-Forbes