Coral Lambert

Education

• International Research Fellow: Cast Metal Sculpture University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 1995-98
• MFA: Sculpture Manchester Metropolitan University, England, 1989-91
• BFA: Sculpture Canterbury School of Art, Kent, England, 1986-89

Biography

Coral Penelope Lambert is internationally recognized for large scale cast metal sculpture. Born and raised in the UK she studied sculpture in the 1980's with Sir Anthony Caro and other leading figures in the field. Over the past 25 or so years she has utilized the foundry as her laboratory to explore the process of ‘Speeding up the work of Nature’. Her work responds to metals rich history in myth and mining, playing with its weight, permanence and flux as well as its political reference to the earths resources. She is Professor of Sculpture at Alfred University in Upstate New York where she directs the National Casting Centre Foundry. Her work can be seen in many prestigious exhibitions and collections around the world.

Artist's Statement

Utilizing the foundry studio as a laboratory to explore the union of conceptual ideas, making processes and the nature of various materials, my ideas manifest themselves through heat ‘n’ treat practices such as mould making, melting, casting and fabrication. I enjoy responding to molten metal’s transient liquid state, as well as to its weight and permanence; I regard it as a living material as it breathes, oxidizes, and grows, emerging raw and elemental as if raised from the earth’s depths by volcanoes or formed by billion year old meteorites. In contrast to ‘natural’ processes I sometimes introduce ‘fake’ elements such as fog, flocking, lazer beams and solar light, creating an imminent situation. My endeavor is to capture shifts from the ordinary to the extraordinary, placing under the microscope the elusive essence of the metaphysical oscillating between tangible and intangible so they can be experienced. As surrealist poet Paul Eluard eloquently expressed, ‘It is not far as the crow flies from the land of the imagined to the land of the real’.

The majority of my teaching and academic research is engaged in metal casting drawing upon its rich 5000 year old historical references of ritual, industry, origin of materials, fuel usage and future technology. My curriculum examines the act and art of foundry, from building furnaces through to the cast object using ancient clay mold techniques through to industrial sand molding, fine art ceramic shell and digital prototype technology.

Featured Exhibits / Shows

• ‘Iron Stone’ curated by Wilfred Cass, Kidwelly Castle, Wales, UK. Museum of Steel Sculpture, permanent collection, Ironbridge+ Coalbrookdale, UK.
• ‘Brooklyn Waterfront Sculpture Invitational’, Governors Island, New York.
• ‘Sculpture For New Orleans’ commission for permanent installation, New Orleans.
• ‘Museum Without Walls’ permanent collection, Plattsburgh, New York.
• ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ Cortland University, New York.
• ‘Cloud Split Open’ ‘Contemporary Cast Iron Sculpture’ at the National Metals Museum, Memphis, TN.
• ‘Old Guard: New Guard’ at MACCA, Herron School of Art + Design, Indiana.
• ‘Stacked Hay - Homage to Monet’ Sculpture at Saratoga Springs, New York.
• ‘Bell Forms’ The 4th HuiAn International Stone Carving Symposium, China.
• ‘Nuggette’ Invitational Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Baltimore, MD Pier Walk, curated by Peter Schjeldahl, Navy Pier, Chicago.

Awards/Honors

• Excellence in Teaching Award Artist of Extraordinary Ability
• Gottleib Foundation Award
• Jerome Fellowship
• Joan Mitchell Foundation
• Forecast Public Art