Visitors walking through Laurelwood Arboretum this winter can enjoy the newest addition to A Sculpture Trail. “Sandalphon” by Harry Gordon, a 12-foot-tall work in stone, was recently installed at site #4 on the trail.
“Sandalphon,” created in 2010 using black granite, is meant to become one with the environment that surrounds it. Gordon uses a crane to create his granite sculptures, His work is often viewed as being “larger than life.”
Born in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Gordon has a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in sculpture from Syracuse University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from Rutgers University. He now lives in New Jersey.
Gordon began sculpting in a community art class and was an apprentice to Boris Blai, a classically trained Russian figurative sculptor who had worked in Auguste Rodin’s studio. Gordon began his sculpture career with a very classical, figurative approach but now creates larger-than-life organic sculptures that are designed to “exist naturally in the landscape.”
Gordon’s work has been included in exhibits at the Genest Gallery, Lambertville, NJ; Carnegie Center Greenway, Princeton, NJ; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ; Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ; The Gallery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, NJ; 1995; the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, Cadwalder Park, Trenton, NY; the Station Plaza Sculpture Walk, Trenton, NJ; and SUNY Plattsburgh Sculpture Park, Plattsburgh, NY.
Major solo exhibitions include Harry H. Gordon at Morris Arboretum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Outdoor Sculpture at the Chapin School, Princeton, NJ; and the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA.
A Sculpture Trail is being curated by Scott A. Broadfoot of the Broadfoot & Broadfoot gallery in Boonton, New Jersey. Chairpersons of the project are Stuart Reiser, a partner in the firm Shapiro, Croland, Reiser, Apfel & DiIorio and pro bono attorney for the Friends of Laurelwood Board of Directors, and his wife Leslie, both long-time Pines Lake, Wayne residents. A GoFundMe page has been set up to accept donations for the project. To contribute, please go to GoFundMe – Sculpture Trail
The work on exhibit in A Sculpture Trail will be available for sale, with a percentage of the proceeds donated to Friends of Laurelwood Arboretum and applied towards a capital improvement project.
You can follow the progress of A Scultpure Trail installations on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/laurelwoodsculpturetrl/
Friends of Laurelwood Arboretum is the non-profit conservancy whose mission is to preserve and manage the 30-acre arboretum in partnersip with Wayne Township. For additional information about The Sculpture Trail or the Friends organization, go to www.laurelwoodarboretum.org, To get involved, send an email to info@laurelwoodarboretum.org or call 973-831-5675.