Joseph Slusky (born June 7, 1942) is an American sculptor and graphic artist. He is known for his painted abstract welded-steel sculptures and mixed-media drawings.
Biography
Slusky began exhibiting his work in the Bay Area in 1964 and participated in a 1965 summer program with visionary architect Paolo Soleri in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was accepted for the MA degree in art at UC Berkeley in 1966. Later, he completed his master's in arts at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1969.
Artwork
From 1965 to 1975, Slusky modeled plastic filler “Bondo” over the metal sculptures; he spraypainted the resulting organic, curvaceous, and bulbous forms with pearlescent-infused automotive, acrylic lacquer paint. Good examples from this period include Ashby Odyssey (1969–74), Combustible Purple (1969), and The Kaiser's Song (1970).
In 1975, Slusky discontinued using plastic filler in his work and started working with the metal, namely welding, cutting, and grinding. He also started hand painting the metal sculptures with acrylic lacquer and other painting media.