Bryan Crockett

Bryan Crockett joined the School of Art faculty in 2007 and is a professor in the Sculpture Program. He served as the Sculpture Program Head for 10 years and taught at all levels in the program, including courses in Advanced Criticism, Mold-Making, and Fabrication and courses related to the Body and Figure.

Crockett has had solo exhibitions at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Fotouhi Cramer Gallery, and Artist Space in New York and has had featured artist projects, such as Uneasy Nature: Lee Bul, Bryan Crockett, Roxy Paine, Patricia Piccinini, Alyson Shotz, and Jennifer Steinkamp at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in North Carolina and Meet the New You at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa. Crockett’s work has also been included in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of America Art and in Mike Kelley’s curated exhibition and publication, The Uncanny, at the Tate Liverpool. His work has been included in numerous museum exhibitions, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, the Tang Teaching Museum, the Des Moines Art Center, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, MUMOK, Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, Artium Museum in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, as well as many galleries and project spaces internationally. Crockett’s work has been widely reviewed in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Time Out, Art in America, Artform, Flash Art, Sculpture Magazine, Newsweek, and many others. Recent publications featuring Crockett’s work included Sculpture Today by Judith Collins (Phaidon Press, London) and Conversations on Sculpture (ISC Press).   Bryan Crockett is also the recipient of a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award.

Crockett received his MFA from Yale University, School of Art, and his BFA in Sculpture from The Cooper Union in New York.

Prior to teaching, Crockett worked commercially for the Jim Henson Muppet Workshop in New York. After which, he established a business designing and fabricating specialty projects and props for theater, film, tv, print, and fashion. Designer Bob Crowley hired him to develop and build a series of wearable sculptures for Disney and Elton John’s production of AIDA - which won the Tony Award for Best Scenic and Costume Design. Crockett was also hired by artist Laurie Simmons to create a series of large sculptural costumes and sets for her film The Music of Regret.  His clients have included Disney, Absolut Vodka, Heineken, Emanuel Ungaro, Mario Sorrenti, Mark Seliger, Mikael Jansson, Avon, SNL and Wicked for Den Design Studio, Victoria Secret, Hasbro, Hurley, Mass Mutual, and Julian Laverdiere Design.

Crockett’s technical background inspired him to develop curriculum and create the School of Art’s first 3D Digital Lab housed in the Sculpture Program while also expanding the program’s traditional wood, metal, and mold-making curriculum and facilities. Crockett has expertise in numerous technical processes; however, his approach to sculpture is rooted in an experimental, research-oriented, interdisciplinary practice.

 

Image Caption for Sample Works:

  1. Image #1 Ignis fatuus, Whitney Museum of America Art Latex Balloons, lightbulbs, cord. 144 x 192 x 120 inches.
  2. Image #2 Left: Bryan Crockett, Ch 3.1997, color print mounted on plexiglass, 48  x 80 inches. Right: Bryan Crockett, Ch 3.1997 (In Memory), glass urn, pressure seal, latex balloons, light bulb, polaroid. 22 x 32 inches.
  3. Image #3 Giant, 2000, Latex balloons. Installation Kunsthalle Basel. 22 feet; Ecce Homo, cultured marble. 108 x 42 x 42 inches.
  4. Image #4, Left: Lust, 18 x 12 x 13 cultured marble; Right: Gluttony, Anger and Sloth (7 Deadly Sins Series), Molecules that Matter Tang Museum Skidmore College 2007.
  5. Image #5, Left: In the mind of the beholder, 2023,Fluoxetine (Prozac) and binder, 12 x 10 x 7 inches  Right: Solipsist, 2006, mixed media, 24 x 17 x 17 inches.
  6. Image #6, Left: Wing, 2016, glass and silicone. 28 x 17 x 6 inches; Right: You will never know 2017, invisible thread, glass bead urethane, 36 x 30  inches.
  7. Image #7, Left: Xenomorph, 2023 batteries, insecticide, medication, antibiotics, old medications, weed killer, plastics, hair, spirulina algae, dirt, dust, toilet paper, plastics collected at beach and waterways, and plant-based resin,  26 x 26  x 10 inches;  Right: Bloom, 2023, re-cast, plastic, trash, batteries, medication, plant-based resin and flock,  9 x 7 x 6 inches.