3 minute read
The Anatomy of Steel
Inspired by the human form, sculptor Jack Howard-Potter captures movement in a medium that does not move.
Story by Garry Dow
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Photography Courtesy of Jack Howard-Potter
In 2001, Jack Howard-Potter ’93 (aka Jake Gumprecht) did something unexpected. After years of working as a metalworker and sculptor, he enrolled in a series of anatomy and drawing classes at the Art Students League in New York City. For two years, Jack immersed himself in the human form, sketching five days a week, completing thousands of drawings.
The experience changed his life. “One of the things that make my sculptures unique is that they seek to convey the motion of the body in extremely stressful and beautiful positions,” he says. “The moment that a dancer is at the peak of a jump, the weightless split second before a body succumbs to gravity.” In 2005, Jack took everything he had learned and set out to make his largest and most daring sculpture to date, The Muse. Standing almost thirty feet tall, the monumental figure was also a monumental success.
Today, you can find Jack in his Long Island City studio, fabricating an astonishing collection of statuary. Alone, without any assistants, he shapes, cuts, and welds each steel rod by hand. You will not find a machine stamping out parts here. Instead, Jack relies on his intimate knowledge of the human form, gleaned from his years at The Art Students League, to breathe life into the anatomy and musculature of the figures he bends to his will. As a final step, each statue is galvanized and powder-coated, protecting the steel from corrosion and adding vibrant color to its surface.
No stranger to success, Jack’s work routinely turns up temporarily and permanently in sculpture parks, city sidewalks, public art shows, and galleries across the country, including Coral Springs, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Suwanee, Georgia; Roanoke, Virginia; Leonia, New Jersey; Ossining, New York; Long Island City, New York; and Manchester, Vermont. His work has even appeared on the television shows Gossip Girl, Billions, and the upcoming premier season of Run the World.
Jack was born in 1975 in New York City. After Pomfret, he headed to Union College to study art history and sculpture, before eventually landing in Colorado, where he worked as a blacksmith, learning about the fluid properties of steel and the commercial trade of metalwork.
“As soon as I made my first weld, I knew I had finally found the material and process I wanted to devote my life to,” he says. “There was some sort of primordial, magical transformation that was taking place in me and the material. Liquifying solid steel instantaneously and having a medium that was ultimately malleable and changeable sparked my soul like nothing else.”
THE MUSE | 2005 — The Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, Vermont — Standing twenty-seven feet tall, the monumental figure of a female form taking to the sky is made out of almost 2,000 pounds of steel, covered in a galvanized, powder-coated, silver skin. The sculpture took four months to complete.
Hand Plant, 2016
Belvedere Torso, 2010
Untitled Digital Drawing, 2016
Valkyrie, 2008
Balancing, 2004
Kinacer, 2016
SWINGING II | 2012Court Square, Long Island City, New York — Swinging II is a kinetic sculpture that moves freely with viewer input. The sculpture invokes the joy and freedom of childhood memories swinging on a swing. The kinetic movement aids in depicting the figure in motion.
DANCER XX | 2014Heartis Suwanee, Suwanee, Georgia — Dancer XX is a twenty-foot-tall kinetic figurative steel statue. The entire sculpture is mounted on a large bearing that allows the figure to orient itself towards the wind with the aid of the curtain the sculpture is holding.
LARM | 2012Bethany Arts Community, Ossining, New York — Larm is a body part collage sculpture. The figure is easily recognizable but challenges the viewer to discern the missing pieces. The steel fabric or exploded beach ball aids in the dancing movement of the figure bringing life to the work.
ANGEL OF DEATH | 2020 — Chicago Sculpture Exhibition, Chicago, Illinois — The Angel of Death has had a tragically busy year in 2020. The sculpture, which stands as a symbol of the beauty in transition, was initially a response to the pervasive and perverse gun violence in America but has taken on new meaning during the Covid-19 pandemic.
DROWN | 2009 — Private Collection, Grand Rapids, Michigan — Drown is a three-times-life-size figure. Weighing in at almost 1,000 pounds, the figure is six feet tall and four feet wide. If the sculpture were to stand up, it would be close to fifteen feet tall. It has a matching male counterpart called Goliath.
