Solidity and Assemblage 

This exhibition brings together the sculptural practices of Paul Chaleff and Sylvia Wald, two artists whose works explore the expressive potential of materials and form. Though their approaches differ, both share a deep engagement with the physical presence of matter and the ways it can be shaped, assembled, and transformed into visual language. Through distinct methods, each artist reveals how material can become a foundation for meaning, structure, and expression.

Paul Chaleff’s sculptures emerge directly from the earth. Working primarily with clay, he creates ceramic forms that emphasize weight, balance, and restraint. His works often appear minimal and monumental, drawing attention to the essential qualities of the material, including its density, texture, and subtle variations of surface. Through forming and firing, Chaleff transforms clay into enduring structures that embody strength and quiet contemplation. His sculptures often take on geometric or tectonic forms that feel grounded and stable, allowing the viewer to focus on the material itself. In Chaleff’s work, clay becomes a central subject, revealing a dialogue between natural substance and human intention.

In contrast, Sylvia Wald’s sculptures arise from assemblage. Rather than shaping a single material, she constructs forms by combining elements such as plaster, wire, string, and occasionally natural materials including fish bones and bird feathers. Wald’s works blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture, line and structure. Many feel like drawings extended into space, delicate yet dynamic compositions that emphasize movement and gesture. Through assembling fragments and materials, Wald creates works that evoke both organic growth and constructed form.

Together, Chaleff and Wald present two complementary approaches to sculpture. Chaleff’s work begins with the solidity of earth, shaping a single material into unified form. Wald’s sculptures emerge through the gathering and arrangement of multiple elements, creating layered structures that expand into space. One emphasizes mass and stillness, while the other suggests lightness and motion.

Solidity and Assemblage highlights this dialogue between formation and construction, mass and line, grounded weight and spatial movement. Paul Chaleff’s work has been exhibited widely and is held in major museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Sylvia Wald’s work has likewise been exhibited internationally and is included in collections such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Together, their sculptures invite viewers to reconsider the relationship between nature, material, and artistic intention.

Paul Chaleff, Round Series #5, ceramic tablet, 2013, 42 x 42 inches