Biography

P.O. Box 1796

Friday Harbor , WA 98250

(360) 378-8831

micajah@orcasonline.com

www.micajahbienvenu.com

Micajah Bienvenu has been making metal sculptures for the last 24 years. He was born on the east coast, and lived in Missouri until he moved to the Pacific Northwest to attend Whitman College . An avid fly fisherman, he began his artistic career as a teenager, creating steelhead trout and salmon from scrap copper and stainless steel, and later expanded his focus to include a variety of other wildlife such as seahorses, octopuses, blue herons, and llamas to name a few. In addition to sculpture he has completed many architectural metal projects for restaurants, bars and private compounds, providing the opportunity to work with designers, architects and engineers, forging many professional contacts in the metal working community.

During the last 8 years, Micajah has abandoned his representational work to focus on creating large, non-objective work, suitable for public art. His commitment to public work derives from his belief that public art is the most important art in existence because everyone has the need for art in their daily lives. His artistic goal is to translate emotions and feeling into three-dimensional forms, conveying a sense of elegance, wonder, and joy to the viewer. To accomplish this, Micajah uses metalworking techniques that are both high-tech (e.g., Computer Numeric Control plasma cutter, Windows-based 3-D NURBS modeling program) and low-tech (hammers and grinders). The holographic surface textures of his stainless steel works are created using artificial diamond sandpaper and interwoven calligraphy-like patterns that introduce spatial depth and reflect the colors of the earth and sky around them, giving viewers a sense of motion as their viewpoints change. He lives with wife Amy on San Juan Island , Washington .

Micajah is represented by galleries and sculpture parks around the country and his work has been collected nationally and internationally for many years.

Exhibitions

SOFA, Chicago IL , 2005

Arts in the Parks, Westchester County , NY 2005-2006

Redmond Arts Commission Sculpture Exhibit, Redmond, WA 2005-2006

Peace Arch International Sculpture Exhibit, Blaine, WA 2005

Monarch Sculpture Park, Tenino WA, Artist of the year 2005

Rapture, 23rd Annual Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition Sculpture show, Brooklyn, NY August -September 2005

Art Outside, Port Angeles Fine Art Center, Port Angeles, WA 2005-2006

Micajah Bienvenu-Steps Up, a One Man Show, Harbor Steps, Seattle,WA, 2005

La Conner Arts Commission Sculpture show, La Conner, WA 2004-2005

Westcott Bay Institute, San Juan Island, WA, 2003-2004

Freed Gallery, Lincoln City, OR, 1997-present (Solo show July 2005)

Sunburst Gallery, Wenatchee, WA, 1993-present

Artique Limited, Anchorage, AK, 1988-present

Highline Gallery, Aspen, CO, 1995-2001

Gail Severen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID, 1987-1997

Scanlon Gallery, Ketchikan, AK, 1993-1996

Gallery Mack, Seattle, WA, 1994-1996

The Sculpture Garden, Carmel, CA, 1990-1994

Lawrence Gallery, Portland, OR, 1993-1994

Virginia Brier Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1992-1993

Signature Gallery, San Diego, CA, 1989-1991

Matzke Runnings, Seattle, WA, 1986-88 (solo show)

Board of directors

Westcott Bay Institute www.wbay.org

Teaching

Whitman College, Course in advanced computer designed sculpture, 2003

Public Commissions

Harbor Steps, Seattle, WA, 2005

Lambiel Museum, Orcas Island , WA 2004

Whitman College, Walla Walla , WA , 2003

Corporate Collections

Washington Athletic Club, Seattle , WA

Ray's Boathouse, Seattle, WA

The Callison Partnership, Seattle, WA

MacDonald's Corporate Headquarters, Kirkland, WA

Nordstrom Corporate Headquarters, Seattle, WA

Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Renton, WA

Yarrow Bay Grill, Kirkland, WA

Red Dot Corporation, Seattle WA

Niko Japanese Restaurant, Westin Hotel, Seattle, WA

Salty's on Alki, Seattle, WA

Salty's at the Falls, Spokane, WA

Spears Plastics, Los Angeles, CA

Land Sea Air Leasing, Ketchikan, AK

Pieces by the artist are also represented in numerous private collections.

Artist’s Statement by Micajah Bienvenu

While my monumental sculptures are included in many private collections, I am committed to creating successful public sculpture. I believe that public art is the most important art in the world because all sorts of people get to enjoy the experience.  A good piece of public art gets people’s attention and makes them focus on something that has nothing to do with them. I am interested in producing inspiring art that affects people positively, bringing pleasure and joy into their daily lives. In my work as a board member of the Westcott Bay Institute and co-curator of its 19 acre sculpture park, I enjoy seeing young children running among the sculptures, squealing, banging and climbing, pronouncing opinions upon their arrival at every piece.  They get it.

I’ve always been obsessed by sculpture and have spent most of my life making art.  My favorite part of creating my sculptures is when I take the jigsaw puzzle of flat metal parts and start to weld them together, and then watch as the solid form of this sculpture starts to emerge, as if guided by some unseen force. I belong to new breed of metal sculptors who have embraced the digital revolution. My favorite tool is a piece of software called Rhino3d, which allows me to conceptualize, scale and model my sculptures in a 3d space that seamlessly interfaces with the fabrication industry’s CAD/CAM technology. I begin each sculpture by opening my notebook computer and sketching curves in space.  As I work through a series of shapes, I surround the curves with cross sections that I sweep along their length, creating solids.  These drawings are saved incrementally and provide a basis for constant evolution in a series. Some of the patterns that emerge in my work involve spirals, interacting helixes and twisted forms that have roots in the natural world. The abstracted human form is another topic which I continue to explore with these techniques.

My favorite materials are stainless steel and bronze. Bronze has the ability to take a variety of patinas, and stainless is very durable, easy to maintain and structurally very strong. When I fabricate stainless steel sculptures, I use a large disk sander that I run up and down the sculpture, interweaving the marks and interpreting the shape with a controlled frenzy of patterns. This yields a burnished texture that gives the surface a holographic appearance that lends spatial depth and a human energy to the finish.  This effect breaks up the intensity of polished stainless steel, yet continues to reflect the colors of the environment, providing an endlessly changing variety of tones and colors.  When I am working with stainless steel, I know that what I am making will be around for a long time.

 I think a piece has really turned out well when the finished sculpture embodies the feeling that I intended when I was developing the concept, whether it be one of unbridled exuberance or quiet repose. It pleases me when shapes are fluid and smooth from every angle and every weld is invisible. I believe a successful sculpture reveals a variety of forms from different vantage points, and each view offers unique shapes that invite the mind to follow their energy through space. The thing I like best about what I do is that I am able to make the things that I feel need to be made, put them out in the public view, and see people be touched by them in a positive way.