Art By Nyland's Syracuse Art Freak: Anssi Taulu & Yusam Sung @ Sculpture Space, Inc., Utica NY March 2014

Sculpture Space, Inc.

12 Gates Street, Utica NY

Click here for Sculpture Space's website.

Click here Sculpture Space on Facebook.

One of my favorite Utica NY art scene discoveries over the past year has been the marvelous Sculpture Space, Inc. not-for-profit organization. Primary focus is a residency program where they host world class sculptors from across the globe to make use of their fabrication facilities and let their imaginations run wild.

They dorm nearby in an apartment building and have 24 hour access to the studios, which are a spitting image of the Comart Building sculpture lab where I did much of my undergraduate work at Syracuse University. I like to say that walking into Sculpture Space was like walking back into Comart again, right down to that metallic smell & taste of a metals shop with welding tools. I always make a point to stop by and see what new ideas there are to purloin from the current residents and this pair were golden. First class work & fun, all you can ask for.

Anssi Taulu, and seriously, the damndest thing I'd ever seen in months. Marveled at it for a couple weeks while it took shape, not understanding just what it was nor caring one bit: It's a masterpiece, even just sitting there like this. I wanted to bounce it across the room.

Anssi Taulu, and the answer is it's a wasp nest form.

Anssi Taulu

This seriously almost killed the fun cold -- Wasps are mean. Got stung more than once as a kid & have a natural inbred fear of them for some reason. Bees? no worries. They make honey too. But what do wasps do beside sting 8 year olds?

Anssi Taulu

One nicked from Anssi's website, which you may visit

by clicking here. Incredible.

Performance artist Catherine Wright rehearsing at Sculpture Space in April 2014.

Next up Yusam Sung, who's work stunned my mind once I thought about how important it was for viewers to remove one of his pieces. The piece evolves outside of the artist's hand, truly a living work of art that must have taken weeks to complete. Months, if including the drawings.