A love seat with wooden limbs in a spinal curl position. A slender chair with folded arms, and an armless chair on wheels that appears ready to lurch forward.
These anthropomorphic furniture creations come courtesy of Angelo Arnold, a Vermont-based artist whose works are currently on view at the Burns Arts Atrium in the Visual Arts Building in a show titled “UnRest.”
“I see myself as a visual artist who loves to build objects,” says Arnold, who teaches two-dimensional design, sculpture, architecture and landscape architecture courses at Norwich University in Northfield, Vt.
As a furniture sculptor, he crafts animated pieces that play with the line between the functional and the farcical, presenting “concepts of metamorphosis, change and subversion with self.
“I create custom works that embrace change and present possibilities for adaptation to new, unfamiliar environments and situations,” he says. “Though my reconstructed objects reference a vocabulary of furniture, the removal of the functional aspects subverts the viewer’s expectations and provokes new interpretations.”
Arnold’s work has been shown in national and international juried exhibitions and reviewed in numerous periodicals and publications. The recipient of many grants, awards and fellowships, he holds an MFA in studio art and sculpture from the Ohio State University.
“UnRest” continues through Dec. 15.