A visiting sculpture artist at Franklin College will give a talk on her work next week.
Sayaka Ganz, a native of Japan, is the Allen W. Clowes Visiting Artist for the 2015-16 winter term. Using post-consumer plastic objects as her materials, Ganz’s recent sculptures depict colorful animals in motion.
She taught a class throughout January as part of her residency on campus. In her seminar, students explored the use of everyday objects and came up with new ways to re-purpose them into creative works of art.
Ganz’s work, along with the work of her students, will be showcased on campus through March 11 at the Johnson Center for Fine Arts.
Ganz will offer a lecture from 7 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 11 in the Henderson Conference Room, with a reception to follow. The lecture, titled “Transcending the Ordinary,” will focus on Ganz’s work as well as the students’ sculpture work. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Ganz was born in Yokohama, Japan, and grew up living in Japan, Brazil and Hong Kong. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Indiana University-Bloomington and continued to create welded sculptures of animal forms independently. In 2008 she earned her master’s degree in sculpture from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. She taught design and drawing courses at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne between 2002 and 2012.
Her recent exhibitions include “Danze Della Natura,” a solo exhibition at the Hermann Geiger Foundation in Cecina, Italy, and “Feng Shui ~ Wind and Water,” a solo exhibition in the Isle Gallery, Isle of Man.
She also showcased her work at Franklin College in September 2013. Her recent commissions include a series of four marine life sculptures for the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California and an environmental sculpture installation depicting an underwater scene with right whale and various schools of fish for the atrium of the Exploration Tower in Port Canaveral, Florida.
