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Gene Evans, self-taught sculptor, 1957-2002. Evans
was born in rural Alamo, Georgia as part of a large family. He remembers making toys
out of cans or any other small scrap, and was frequently carving and putting things
together as a child. His artistic inclinations continued, and were later inspired
by an art teacher in high school. Before being able to finish, Evans had to quit
school in order to help support his family. He continued to create his sculptures,
selling a few pieces along the way,
but mostly giving them to family and friends. He recalled, "my mind was always
working, finding shapes of animals and other things in every scrap piece of metal."
His subjects came from childhood memories and the icons of his rural environment.
In the late 1990s, he began using his self-taught welding skills to create his art,
resulting in wonderful fusions of metal; realistic, yet extraordinary in their composition
and form. Gene Evans' work is some of the most exciting that has been produced in
the field of self-taught, or contemporary folk art. Using rusted farm tools and other
recycled materials which operate in dialog with the subject itself, Evans works are
sophisticated in concept, construction and composition. Although firmly positioned
in the tradition of self-taught, the work transcends the field in its technical accomplishment.
Gene Evans died tragically from a brain hemorrhage at the age of forty-five. Mr. Evans work is in the Menello Museum's permanent collection and important private collections such as The Arthur Blank Collection. |
