The Artsy Vanguard 2019: Fred Eversley
Fred Eversley by Elon Schoenholz. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles.
Fred Eversley’s parabolic lens sculptures remind us of the wonder of being human in the vastness of the universe. His optically enticing works encourage self-reflection and shifts in perception.
In 1967, Eversley embarked on an art career in Los Angeles, employing many of the same tools, materials, and techniques he used in his previous profession as an engineer at NASA. His use of polished polyester resin for making sculptures anointed him into West Coast Minimalism, as well as the Light and Space movement, which focused on geometric shapes and the use of light.
Eversley experienced success early on, receiving a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1970 and a first-of-its-kind art residency in 1977 at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He’s seen a resurgence recently, as his sculptures were included in exhibitions such as “Space Shifters” at the Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre in London and the traveling “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963–1983.” Recently, Eversley joined the roster of David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles.
Kim Conaty, the Whitney Museum’s curator of drawings and prints who curated Eversley’s 2017 solo show at the Rose Art Museum, recalled that the artist had been dwelling on the future of his work in the 1970s. Eversley expressed hopes for people to live with his work for a long time, “pick it up, move it around, and really look at it as an ever-changing experience,” Conaty explained. “When I see his work, I always think of this, and the fascinating way that it unites the intimate and the cosmic.”
