Ralph Helmick

Early life and education

Helmick received a BA at the University of Michigan. He studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and then earned an MFA in sculpture from a joint program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University.

Career

Helmick has worked in various materials (metal, stained glass, cast resin, found objects) to create large-scale public sculptures in parks, airports, schools, hospitals, museums, and other civic spaces across the US. His works play on human perception, and often employ anamorphosis, an optical phenomenon where images are resolved from a precise perspective.

Helmick's award-winning works include the Arthur Fiedler Memorial on the Charles River Esplanade; the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial at Austin's Auditorium Shores; Rabble at the North Carolina Museum of Art; Landing at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport; Heart and Mind at the Oregon Institute of Technology.

In 2014, Ralph Helmick juried the Public Art Network Year in Review. His own commissions had been awarded the PAN YiR on eight previous occasions.

Helmick Sculpture is based in Newton, Massachusetts. The studio is currently working on its first international projects.

Floating World (2014)

Biorenewables Complex, Iowa State University / Ames, Iowa

This is a three-story suspended sculpture made using eight laser-cut steel panels showing the horizon of a changing landscape, said to depict the evolution of agriculture from the nineteenth-century to the modern day. They are interspersed with abstract perforated "mist" panels, and framed above by a "sun" sequence.

It is inspired by the paintings of Grant Wood, and by compositional strategies employed in Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e, literally "floating world").

Rara Avis (2001)

Midway Airport / Chicago, Illinois

This 28-foot (8.5 m) sculpture of a red cardinal is made of around 1,800 small sculptures of aircraft.

Rara Avis was recognized by the Public Art Network Year in Review in 2002.

Jurisprudents (2000)

Melvin Price Federal Courthouse / E. St. Louis, Illinois

This is a sculpture of two 15-foot (4.6 m) tall heads facing each other across a courthouse atrium, each composed of around 1,500 small sculptures.

The design for this commission evolved in the wake of the acquittals of O. J. Simpson and the police who beat Rodney King.

Jurisprudents received the GSA National Design Honor Award for Art in 2000.

Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial (1994)

Lady Bird Lake / Austin, Texas

This sculpture commemorates a blues guitarist, featuring a realistic figure of the musician in a meditative pose, with a shadow of the musician playing the guitar. It is installed at Auditorium Shores on Lady Bird Lake, where Vaughan performed many concerts.

It is one of the city's most popular tourist attractions, and has been awarded "Best Public Artwork in Austin" by The Austin Chronicle multiple times.

Arthur Fiedler Memorial (1984)

Charles River Esplanade / Boston, Massachusetts

This is a large-scale sculptural bust of Arthur Fiedler, the late conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, formed from stacked aluminum plates.

The sculpture is located on an island across from the Hatch Shell, the site of many concerts conducted by Fiedler. The art critic Sebastian Smee cites it as an example of high quality public art in Boston.

Collaboration

Helmick and artist-engineer Stuart Schechter (1958- ) collaborated on a number of projects, working as Helmick & Schechter from 1993 to 2008.