In production, 2023 release

Martin Puryear’s sculptures are based on wide range of personal, cultural, and historical references.  His abstracted organic forms are made by hand and culled from a variety of traditions, including wood carving, joinery, boat building, as well as modern technology.

Puryear is building a monumental sculpture for Storm King Art Center.  It rises 20 feet high, and is his first sculpture made of brick. Our film documents its creation from initial models and schematics, to every stage of the curved grotto-like shape, culminating in a rounded dome at the top.  Puryear, assistants, engineers, and builders describe the unique and complex process of creating the work, and Storm King curators place it in the context of the 500-acre outdoor museum.

Puryear was born in 1941 in Washington D.C.  He has received a MacArthur Foundation award, a National Medal of Arts, and in 2019 he represented the United States at the 58th Venice Biennale. He lives and works at his home in the Hudson Valley.