PERMANENT COLLECTION
The Gadsden Arts Center has several outstanding works of art on permanent loan or as part of the permanent collection. The Center is in the process of expanding the collection through the generous donations of local art colletors.
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O.L. Samuels
Godzilla, n.d.
paint on wood, 29” x 84” x 23”
Gift of Lou and Calynne Hill, December 2009
2009.1.6
Godzilla is a 7-foot tall sculpture carved by Tallahassee artist O.L. Samuels. This imaginary creature is made from a discarded telephone pole and is part of a husband and wife set of these beasts. Godzilla is the female, and her husband, according to the artist, “now lives in Atlanta, Georgia”. The Gadsden Arts Center exhibited this work in the exhibition, Vernacular Art from the Hill Collection, August 28–October 25, 2009.
O.L. Samuels was born in Wilcox County, Georgia, on Nov. 18, 1931. The artist left home when he was eight years old and worked various odd jobs around the country including farmer, professional boxer, and tree surgeon. While working as a tree surgeon in 1982, Samuels was seriously injured and had to spend a lengthy recovery in a wheelchair. The accident sent him into a deep depression, until he remembered his grandmother’s advice to carve wood whenever he was down. This was the beginning of Samuel’s artistic career. Samuels works mainly with found wood such as tree trunks, roots, and old wood furniture, which he will carve for months at a time. Although color-blind, Samuels paints several layers of wild, expressive colors, “using every color so he doesn’t leave any out”. He is known for his imaginary images, dreamlike figures, and mythical creatures, each of which comes with a story about its existence. His work often has a spiritual message, as Samuels became a lay minister later in life.
O.L. Samuels lives in Tallahassee with his wife, using his living room as a workshop. He is considered one of the most talented self-taught artists in America by museums across the country. Samuels’ work is part of several permanent collections, including the Arkansas Arts Center and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
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Works on Loan:
Florida Shirt
Leo McMillan
mixed media
On loan from the artist
This large-scale mixed media sculpture represents all things associated with the state of Florida, included dolphins, oranges, flamingos, NASA, snakes, alligators, and more while posing as a “Florida Shirt”. Artist Leo McMillan teaches 3D Design and Art Tools and Techniques at Florida State University and has maintained a professional art studio for thirty years. He is a past recipient of an Individual Artists Fellowship from the State of Florida and was one of three artists chosen statewide to design a monumental sculpture for the front of the State Capitol. Currently, McMillan resides in Quincy, and sits on the Gadsden Arts Center Exhibition Committee.
 Ichiboku Sculptures:
Natabori, Mongaku, Yama Uba
Mark Lindquist
wood
On loan from the artist
Mark Lindquist has been an innovator and leader in the field of woodturning/sculpture since the late 1960s. Lindquist's thirty-plus years of contributions to contemporary art have altered the direction of woodturning and sculpture worldwide. Through exhibiting, writing and teaching, Lindquist was instrumental in bringing about the acceptance of the craft of woodturning as a serious art form, and inspired and nurtured the followers of this fledgling movement. Mark Lindquist's sculpture has evolved out of his art historical studies and his mastery of, and experimentation with, the craft of woodturning. Beginning in the late 1960s, he developed many of the techniques and aesthetic concepts which underlie the current studio woodturning movement, including the use of flawed materials (especially spalted wood), the application of modern abrasive technology, and the integration of Japanese ceramic sensibilities.
These sculptures are from one of Lindquist’s several series of sculpted wood. Ichiboku, literally "one tree," is a type of Japanese sculpture made from a single block of wood. This technique flourished in the ninth century when a spirit of religious revivalism prevailed, and the spirit of the tree was invoked to lend strength to the image carved from it.
Lindquist’s works have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world, and have been acquired by prestigious museums such as the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, the White House Collection of American Craft, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the High Museum in Atlanta, and numerous other public and private collections.
In September of 2010, the Gadsden Arts Center will host and exhibition that explores the 40-year evolution of Lindquist’s work, from wood vessels and furniture to large-scale totems to abstract photography.
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Gadsden Arts, Inc.