Lehman Sculptures Newest Additions to Public Art Scene

The Mayor's Partnership for Public Art has done it again, adding three new sculptures to the Summit landscape. Residents and out-of-town visitors will notice artist Wendy Lehman's Boxwood at the intersection of Elm and Mountain Avenues and True Blue in the Promenade Park on Springfield Avenue.

A third sculpture stands on the Summit High School grounds and is titled Nodding Acquaintance.

"I hope (Summit residents) will like the experience of seeing new art around them and hope they will become fond of some of the work, finding themselves looking at their surroundings in a new way," said Lehman of the city's newest acquisitions.

 Boxwood (84 x 67 in.) and Nodding Acquaintance (101 x 90 x 90 in.) are both fashioned from Hexcel aluminum and painted in a variety of colors and patterns. True Blue (110 x 56 x 17 in.) is made from wood and painted with acrylic paint.

"My aim is to communicate with the viewer primarily on a subconscious level and secondarily on an intellectual one," explains Lehman in the personal statement on her Web site. "Generally I work in a series and only much later when the work is finished do I analyze the choices I made and try to discover why the work took the form it did and what the psychological or intellectual content might be."

Lehman, who is originally from California, now resides in New York City where she also works. Her paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in renowned galleries and grounds throughout America including The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Yellowstone Art Museum in Montana, New Jersey's Grounds for Sculpture, and the Las Vegas Art Museum in Nevada, among numerous others.

Her artwork is also found in numerous private collections as well as several public businesses and establishments throughout the country.

The artist credits Michael Tcheyan, Co-Chair of Public Art/Summit, for selecting the three pieces that are currently on display in town.

Some of the forms and figures in her sculptures may seem recognizable, but Lehman said that her work "tends to be spontaneous."

However, she explained that Boxwood is an exception to this trend and was created in response to the past experiences of her younger daughter, Sage.

"She was having a difficult time one year at school and was not receiving their help or encouragement—quite the contrary," said the artist. "Despite that, she blossomed… rather like the proverbial green sprout which manages to pop up between the cracks in the sidewalk. Immediately when I finished the piece I knew 'where it came from.'"

Lehman has displayed some of her sculpture outdoors in Summit back in 2005 when the Mayor's Partnership for Public Art (also known as Public Art/Summit) was still a young organization.

Public Art/Summit has now been established for 15 years and has served to bring more than 30 public art projects to all corners of the city.