Vince Skelly (b. 1987, lives and works in Claremont, California) combines process, collective memory, and material to create wooden sculptures that explore the space between sculptural form and functional object. Using wood from a variety of trees from the Pacific Northwest and Southern California, Skelly works reductively to shape each stool, chair, or abstract form from a single block. Following grain, patterns, knots, and other characteristics inherent to the material, Skelly teases out simplified and essential forms that emerge in consort with the uniqueness and singularity of each block.

The sculptures are inspired by various traditions of wood carving, both ancient and modern, as well as by disparate reference points such as megalithic dolmens, ancient figurines, the sculptures of Brancusi, and the figures found in the paintings of Phillip Guston. With a chainsaw and traditional hand tools, Skelly slowly reveals biomorphic volumes, off-kilter angles, and carved portals within his glyph-like forms, each bearing their own spirit, rhythm and personality.

Vince Skelly holds a BS from San Francisco State University, CA. His work has recently been exhibited at Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR; the Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA; and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, Pullman, WA.