ARTIST STATEMENT Gerard Merchant (°1959, Lynchburg, United States) is an artist who mainly works in wood sculpture, allowing natural form to be reborn. By examining the ambiguity and origination via retakes and variations, Gerard considers creating works of art a gift which is executed using unclear and less formal rules and which should always refer to working with objects delivered via Mother Nature. His sculptures never show the complete structure. This results in the fact that the artist can easily imagine his own interpretation without being hindered by the historical reality of what Mother Nature starts with. By choosing mainly formal solutions, he tries to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria, but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations. His works are notable for their museum finis...
From my mind as a black man living in modern American social ills. Gerard Merchant was born in 1959 in Lynchburg, Virginia. My works are primarily in wood sculpture. My sculptures emerge through a process of retakes and variations that mark my creative journey of examining the ambiguity between my vision, and the wood’s already exquisite origination. As I execute unclear and less formal rules and which should always reference the partnership with Nature, we create Art.