Alfred Sils Gallery

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Thanks for visiting my website. The images shown are representative of the several series on which I am now working. While most of the pieces shown are in private collections, a few remain available and, of course, new work is always in progress.
Work can be purchased through the galleries which carry my work and, if you contact me, I will be glad to provide you that information. New gallery inquiries are, of course, welcomed as well.

If you click on the thumbnails below you will enter the galleries containing my work. I hope you enjoy your visit.

Traditional Gallery

My Traditional Gallery shows work which seeks to interpret traditional Japanese and Chinese forms in a modern western idiom. The woods used are beautifully figured domestic hardwoods in their natural colors. The finishes are clear and, other than enhancing the natural color and figure of the wood, do not add any colors or other embellishments to the pieces. In specific instances, the surface of the bowl has been wire brushed or embossed to highlight the visual and textural complexities of the surface and to provide a tactile difference between the interior and the exterior of the piece.

Wood and Metal Gallery

My Wood and Metal Gallery presents a further exploration of traditional Asian forms with the addition of fused copper, silver, gold and other metals used as embellishments. My feeling that wood and metal have a dual relationship, both synergistic and antagonistic, allows the creation of both tension and highlight in the form. I have combined this, in most pieces, with textural explorations which seek to enhance the tactile qualities of the pieces.

Sculptural Gallery

In my Sculptural Gallery I have begun the exploration of the deconstruction of traditional bowl forms to achieve sculptural forms with some degree of abstraction, either in the form, the idea, or both. Again, I have used the duality of the combination of wood and metal in both the sculptural form and to emphasize the ideation inherent in the piece.

Collaborative Gallery

Our collaborative gallery contains examples of the combination of ceramics and wood with metal in an exploration of the expressive harmonies (and incompatibilities) of these diverse media. Finding the right balance between the plasticity of Carol’s ceramic sculpture and Alfred’s subtractive wood techniques seems to be both challenging and enthralling. It requires pushing the boundaries of both media, introducing and inventing new techniques, and even using other materials when the construction and artistic techniques require them. We will be putting our new pieces and series on the site as we complete them. We hope you will check back frequently and be challenged by them.

Let Reason Ring Series

The year 2009 is the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Darwin and the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his publication of The Origin of the Species. This seminal work introduced reason into our thinking about life on this planet and into our exploration of our own origins, both individually and as a species. It introduced science into the conversation on the origin of life and began the process that led to our understanding of genetic structure, mutation, and of DNA itself. The structure of the double helix and the understanding of its tendency to change has enhanced our understanding of evolution and led to the mapping of the human genome and those of other species. We have used the totem form in this series because it lets us tell the story in a unique and traditional way. Click here to go to gallery.