January 3rd - January 31st, 2020

The Strand Center for the Arts, in partnership with Walter Early from the Plattsburgh State Art Museum, presented a selection of Plattsburgh native John Bolles’ original artwork to acknowledge the 30th anniversary of his death.

On display were Bolles’ sculpture and drawings focused on stylized vessels.  These works simplified recognizable objects, usually tools, into idealized form.  Of the work, Bolles stated in 1988, “I feel that with each new piece I am stripping away all that is unimportant and am left with a stronger visual form.”  The highly crafted sculptures were built on a wooden structure then covered in layers of bondo and paint to form a rich surface reminiscent of machined parts.  Standing on the gallery floor at a slightly larger than human scale, the relationships between body and vessel are undeniable.

 Born in Plattsburgh, John Bolles (1939-1990) graduated from Plattsburgh High School (Class of 1957) and spent one year at SUNY Plattsburgh before transferring to SUNY Buffalo.  After earning an undergraduate degree in Art Education, Bolles studied sculpture for 6 months in England before enrolling at Temple University in Philadelphia to pursue a master’s degree.

 John Bolles was a multimedia artist, passionately producing many works on paper, paintings, and sculptures.  He taught printmaking at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1972-1983.  In the late 70s, he moved to New York and worked as a carpenter making custom furniture and producing Manhattan window displays for Pure Madderlake and Calvin Klein.  He was even involved in theatre production, designing and building the set for “A Chorus Line,” which until 2011 held the record for the longest running Broadway musical.

 Bolles was diagnosed with an AIDS-related complex in 1986.  His remaining years saw a voracious studio practice, producing as much work as possible.  Bolles received grants from many prestigious foundations in support of his artwork including the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Inc., the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and a Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, which allowed him to establish a studio in Brooklyn that he maintained until the end of his life.

 Following his untimely, AIDS-related death in 1990, the majority of Bolles’ artistic output was donated by his parents, Otto and Edith Bolles of Plattsburgh, to the Plattsburgh State Art Museum.  The museum collection contains more than 300 objects produced throughout Bolles’ life including many sculptures, prints, and oil pastel drawings and paintings.  His work is installed in most academic buildings on campus as part of the Museum without Walls exhibition program.