Although most of the artist's work in the sculpture park is represented by marble and aluminum, Autin Wright has always been open and experimental with diverse materials. His sculptures have an evocative, dynamic presence. For Regina, the artist has experimented with a new process for creating sculpture using epoxy-coated foam and cast polyester to produce the blue-green work on display by Rat’s Restaurant. The entire process took nearly five years as the artist moved from concept to completion. Wright began with hundreds of drawings using floral shapes as inspiration. Whereas the organic form of Free Form III is based on the leaves of a tulip, Regina is based on the petals of a flower. Following, he modeled the form in clay in order to further refine his vision for the final curving and enveloping form. About the work, Wright states, “I’m interested in simple, basic forms to the minimum needed for the statement I want to make.” At night interior illumination transforms Regina, making the sculpture translucent, and activating the surface to show the mark of the artist’s hand. According to Wright, titles are necessary, but not integral to the understanding of his work, and so like Kordell, located in the Bamboo Courtyard, this one is named for an important person in his life. A fourth work by Wright is on display in the Water Garden. The Sleep displays four consecutive expressions of a face in the act of going to sleep. Wright emphasizes the lips and one eye in his piece. With this three-dimensional image of time, he shows the lips, as they start to relax, and the eye, as it slowly shuts. Quintessential to his work, Wright's forms are smooth and pure, and his surfaces are simple. In The Sleep, his transitions are subtle and natural. There are two meanings that can be extracted from this pwork--the literal definition of sleep and the symbolic connotation of death. The dark surface of the piece helps promote both of these interpretations. In Carmelita, the simplicity of forms is based on complex concepts and even more complex and elaborate execution. This ambiguity between vision and construction results in Carmelita’s energetic optical presence that is heightened by the LED light within the fiberglass sculpture. In its watery environment, the serpentine qualities of the work animate its primitive iconography and it rises from the lake much as Poseidon rose from the sea. Autin Wright, who is originally from Kingston, Jamaica, has been a staff member of the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture since 1993, where he is currently the technical supervisor for Paint and Patina. In 1985, he earned his Fine Arts and Art Education Diploma from the Edna Manley School of Visual Art in Kingston, Jamaica, and then moved to the United States to attend school at the Connecticut Institute of Art, Greenwich, CT, graduating in 1991.
Carmelita, 2009
fiberglass and LED light
10' x 5' x 12'
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc. Other works by Autin Wright currently on view in the sculpture park: Regina, 2003
cast fiberglass
96" x 168" x 72"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc. | | 
Free Form III, 1998
white Danby marble
78" x 50" x 47"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.
The Sleep, 1996
cast aluminum
31" x 98" x 6"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.
Kordell, 1998
white Danby marble
45 1/2" x 23 1/2" x 9"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.
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