Expressive Art
Untitled
About the Artist
Jerry Bleem is a Chicago-based artist, educator, and writer whose work explores how meaning, value, and identity are shaped through the cultures in which we live. Working with discarded and unexpected materials, Bleem uses labor-intensive processes to create sculptures and two-dimensional works that invite close looking and attention to meticulous detail. His work often engages themes of ecology, belief, politics, and beauty through minimalism and the practice of reuse.
Untitled
Jerry Bleem (Chicago, IL )
2002 Artist in Residence
Materials: Bronze, steel staples
Untitled is a bronze sculpture formed from thousands of steel staples, originally assembled in waxed cardboard and later cast in bronze. Inspired by close observation of plant forms such as buds, stems, and other organic structures, this work brings together themes of nature, everyday materials, and process.
By transforming unexpected and ordinary materials into a larger form, Bleem invites reflection on how we value such materials and the land world. Set within the forest landscape, viewers are offered a chance to look closely and reconsider what is often overlooked.
Location: Behind the Visitor Center, at the top of the trail to Olmsted Ponds.