Thousand Oaks Art Assocation - Alexander Sculptures installed in Thousand Oaks

By Rachel McGrath
Correspondent
Monday, March 16, 2009

"Oracle in Stone" (Please click "Read More" for the other sculptures.)

It’s taken two years, but several pieces of art by a celebrated sculptor are finally being placed outside city buildings in Thousand Oaks.....

Two monumental sculptures by British-born artist Alexander, who currently resides in Santa Monica, will be installed on the front grounds of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza this week. .
A third sculpture will be installed in front of the Thousand Oaks Senior Center next to the Grant R. Brimhall Library on Janss Road at a later date. .
The idea was first suggested to the city’s Arts Commission in March 2007 by the artist’s friend Doug Jensen. .
‘It’s all a matter of money why it’s taken so long,” said Stephanie Angelini, who chairs the Thousand Oaks Arts Commission. “The three sculptures have to be mounted on foundations, and that’s a city process that takes time and is expensive.” .
To pay for the concrete foundations, $15,000 was pulled from several arts budgets, which had been set aside for arts projects that had been put on hold for other reasons. .
A formal unveiling ceremony of the two sculptures in front of Civic Arts Plaza will take place at 3 p.m. March 22. Alexander, 90, is expected to attend along with city officials. .
The sculptures include a bronze titled “Curved Air,” measuring about 8 feet long by 4 feet wide and 4 feet high, and a marble titled “Uranus” that weighs about 10,000 pounds and is 4 feet high by 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep. .
“The sculptures are made of natural materials and so they are perfect for outside and they will be in an area where there’s more foot traffic these days so they will be seen,” Angelini said. .
“Alexander is an internationally recognized artist,” Angelini said, adding the city needs the art “for the sake of art.” .
Two smaller sculptures will be installed inside the facility, and a sculpture “Oracle in Stone” — based on Alexander’s work commissioned by the British government to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II — will eventually be placed in front of the Senior Center. .
The pieces are being loaned to the city through a long-term, no-fee contract lasting up to five years. .
Jensen, who lives in Calabasas, said Thousand Oaks is the perfect steward for the works of art, which were created in the early 1980s and were for many years located on an estate in Australia owned by Alexander’s ex-wife. .
“What we’d like to do is find a donor who would buy the works for below fair market value and then donate them to the city for the benefit of the people of Thousand Oaks forever,” Jensen said. .
The pieces aren’t the first example of Alexander’s work to be placed on public display in the Conejo Valley. In 2007, Alexander’s “The Cross” was installed at the entrance to Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village. .
In addition to his sculptural installations, 27 paintings recently produced by Alexander, in a series titled “Post-Contemporary Art,” are hanging in the Civic Arts Plaza’s Kavli Theatre Gallery for the unveiling. .

"The Cross"

"Curved Air"

"Uranus"

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