CONTINUUM
Bradley Sabin’s two studios in New Orleans, Louisiana and Poplarville, Mississippi, are literally and figuratively, a window into his soul. The persistently open doors and windows with views of his ardent gardening, both wild and controlled in chorus, create the muse for his work as a sculptor. Exploiting clay as both a cerebral and sensory medium, he generates abstraction of nature with an enduring glimpse of flora and fauna, allowing the viewer to experience the world from his imaginings. Clay presents a method to spotlight the vast, irrepressible, plush wildness of nature as well as the quiet touch of his hands which create a nurtured and structured garden. For him, the work is an affirmation of human relationships and the ongoing tug-of-war between nature and nurturing present in those connections. The nature of his low-fire technique defies the rules of what his medium is capable of, resulting in strong textural structures with an airiness not normally found in the materials he has developed. The layering of color and carefully chosen glazes provide necessary drama at times, and at others with a reflective and quiet quality. His changes in palette are best represented in the tremendously vivid Better Homes and Gardens. Glazes are even more profoundly resonant signifying Sabin’s proficiency in color theory. The balance between bright corals, intense and swamp provoking greens, watery yellows, both soft and bottomless purples and the gentlest pinks demonstrate ‘the symbiotic relationship between nurturing and protecting.’ The floral field has been painstakingly nurtured; however, clear boundaries have been established to protect it from harm.
Continuum, a mathematical term, is a seamless narrative of this collection. In addition to meaning ‘a whole made up of many parts,’ continuum can also illustrate ‘a range that is always present.’ A view of Sabin’s previous work is present, however, the formidable changes in palette and positioning show an evolving domain. Sabin’s artistic language consists of antlers, flowers, leaves, caged objects, abstracted figures and most recently, eggs. The addition of the egg retells his narrative of nature versus nurture. The egg has been a universal symbol of the creation of life and resurrection for 2500 years. Sabin’s eggs are sometimes fragmented, exposing budding energy within fragile shells. Other eggs are intact, waiting uncomplainingly for life to commence and remaining, for the time being, protected. Life perpetually evolves, throughout environmental seasons, births, and migrations of wildlife, and of course, human existence. Life is likewise cyclical. As an artist, Sabin continues his true path, gathering visual and personal information along the way, only to enhance that which he has already mastered.
Sabin earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Master of Fine Arts degree from Louisiana State University. His work can be found all over the world in places as far as Zurich, Switzerland, and the Bahamas and as near as the Bywater in New Orleans. Most recent honors include a solo show at the acclaimed Ohr O’Keefe Museum of Art in 2021.