It’s All About Arts

IT’S ALL ABOUT ARTS Issue 21 • November 2019 • Facebook.com/TalkArts

Supporting Local Arts and Culture

DOMENIC ESPOSITO

Domenic Esposito Creating Dynamic Dialogues with His Avant-Garde Sculptures By Janice Williams

Artists create, and the impact is felt by those who view the art. Some artists create without deliberate meaning, but there is always a message to be shared. Other artists use their creative skills and talents to deliberately and passionately awaken and bring visibility to social crises. Domenic Esposito is the artist of the latter.

Born in Boston and now working and living at his studio in Westwood, Esposito is blanketing the country with his unique sculptures and message. According to Esposito, “Most of my art is in the form of metal sculptures in varying materials and processes. Early on I employed more traditional processes such as metal fabrication and blacksmithing and recently moved into casting sculptures. I have used many different types of metals including steel, aluminum, stainless steel and bronze”. Esposito has attended metalworking and design classes at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Stonybrook Fine Arts, Artist Asylum and Prospect Hill Forge.

Esposito goes on to say, “Drafting and designing sculptures out of metals is a passion that fits my need to combine engineering accuracy with artistic creativity and I find the technical aspect of my art almost as stimulating as the emotional and aesthetic intent. The process I employ marries older sculpturing

methods such as blacksmithing, iron working and sand casting with modern day industrial design utilizing computer-aided design (CAD)”. That Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi is a favorite of Esposito is evident. As stated by the Guggenheim Museum about Brancusi’s 1935 war memorial in Târgu Jiu, Romania, “the idealization of aesthetic form; the integration of architecture, sculpture, and furniture; and the poetic evocation of spiritual thought”. All these accolades and descriptions can be applied to the evolution of Esposito’s artistic achievements.

In the past year, Esposito has embarked on an ambitious guerilla art campaign to bring his sculptures to as many people as possible to raise the alarm for extreme activism for change. In June Esposito dropped his 10 feet long, 800 pounds, “Opioid Spoon” in front of OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma and so was born the “Opioid Spoon Project” now a national symbol of drug activism. Esposito says, “The purpose of my work is to create haunting, sometimes dark but always memorable sculptures symbolic of injustices to humanity within our society. My goal is to create a deeply visceral disturbance in the soul that calls out for help”.

Esposito has been crisscrossing the country, bringing his art in the form of the “Opioid Spoon Project” to the public to help narrate the urgent discussion for the need to stop the massive killing epidemic of drug addiction. He leads rallies, panel discussions and teaches classes on activism such as one recently at Boston University where the “Spoon” was also exhibited. According to Boston University, “In exhibiting the FDA Spoon, the BU Art Galleries, the Department of History of Art & Architecture and the BU Arts Initiative recognize the work of Esposito as operating at the intersection of art and social change.

Esposito has been part of Saloon 29 at MOMA in NYC, part of SOFA Chicago Art Fair, exhibited and spoke at Canvas Fine Arts Gallery in SoWa, Boston and recently spoke at MFA in Boston on art and activism. One of his sculptures (he makes small metal spoons as well as his large ones) was in the Cambridge Art Association National Prize show 2019. He will be participating in the REEL Recovery Film Festival & Symposium® that takes place from November 1-7, 2019 at Village East Cinema, NYC. Esposito will be participating on November 5. More about this festival at https://reelrecoveryfilmfestival.org/2019-rrff-new-york To learn more about this amazing artist who shares his artistic talents to bring social justice to our world, visit his web site to listen to podcasts and see videos of art in action. Domenicesposito.com - Domenic.esposito70@gmail.com