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Fred Eversley

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Fred Eversley
Born1941 (age 82–83)
Brooklyn, New York, US
Alma materCarnegie Institute of Technology
Known forSculpting

Frederick John Eversley (born 1941) is an American sculptor who lives in SoHo, New York, and for many years, as a Venice Beach resident, was associated with the California Light and Space movement. He is recognized for his "centripetal casting" process and for being a pioneer Black abstractionist. His parabolic resin sculptures have been exhibited in more than 200 galleries and museums worldwide.[1]

Early life

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Eversley was born in New York and raised in East New York, in Brooklyn. [2] His father, Frederick W. Eversley Jr., was a civil engineer at Republic Aviation for more than 20 years, and the founder of a minority-owned construction business that played a key role in building the New York State Office Building in Harlem, a Rockefeller University faculty residential tower, the Bronx Zoo World of Darkness building, and others.[3][4] His mother, Beatrice Syphax Eversley, a school teacher and PTA leader,[2][5]traces her ancestry to the Arlington, Virginia Syphax family.[6] Maria Carter Syphax, a slave, was the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, George Washington's stepson, and received seventeen acres inside the Arlington plantation.[6][5]

The eldest of four children, Eversley has one sister Rani Eversley, and two brothers, Donald Eversley and Thomas Eversley.[6] In addition, Eversley has both a German Jewish and a Shinnecock grandmother.[5]

Eversley was first attracted to the parabola form as child reading about Isaac Newton and his experiments.[5][7] He tinkered in his father's electronics basement workshop,[2] playing with his grandfather’s radio and photography equipment to emulate scientific theories.[7]

Eversley attended Brooklyn Technical High School, and worked at Izzy Young’s Folklore Center in Greenwich Village with Marcia Silverman Tucker, who would be responsible years later for giving Eversley his first art show in New York.[5][2]

Eversley went to college at Carnegie Mellon, where he majored in electrical engineering and was the only Black engineering student.[8][9] He did not take one art class at Carnegie Mellon.[10][5] In 2023, Eversley received a Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon.[8]

Career

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From 1963 to 1967, Eversley worked as an engineer at Wyle Laboratories, where he was part of the team that designed high intensity acoustic laboratories for NASA Houston (APOLLO and GEMINI missions), and for the European Space Agency (Munich).[1][4][11]

He moved to Venice, California, in 1964, where he would live for more than 50 years.[4]

In 1967, he retired from engineering to become a full-time artist after a down-the-hill car accident almost cost him his life; he broke his femur and had to walk on crutches for more than one year.[5]

In 1969, Eversley assumed John Altoon's Venice studio that Frank Gehry converted from a laundromat into a live-work space. Kiana and DeWain Valentine were his neighbors,[5][2] as well as other Los Angeles artists, including Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Charles Maddox, John McCracken, and James Turrell.[4][11][1]

In 1977, Eversley was nominated and selected as the first artist in residence of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.[7] As part of his three-year residency, he was given a large studio workspace in the museum's basement and a living space at Barney Studio House (now the Latvian Embassy).[12] Sam Gilliam was one of his neighbors.[9] In DC, Eversley had shows at the American Institute of Architects headquarters, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the National Academy of Sciences.[9]

In 1980, Eversley purchased a five-story, cast iron building in SoHo as an investment.[2] In 2019, he was forced out of his Venice studio and moved back to New York, where he now lives with his artist wife, Maria Larsson.[13] [9]

Artworks

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Eversley is a pioneer among Black abstractionists[14] and creates sculptures from cast resin and other materials.[15] He refers to his process as “centripetal casting,” where he uses a mold instead of his hands to shape the sculpture's form into a parabola.[5] His work focuses on the use of space and light, connecting people through positive energy spaces,[14] and working with the Earth's natural resources to create art.[16] He uses basic geometric forms to play with light refraction and incorporates parabolic curves to evoke thick lens and mirror images.[17] In the 1970s, Eversley was considered to be a part of the California Light and Space movement.[5]

Eversley sold his first major work to the National Museum of American Art, to be included in an international traveling show.[9]

His work appears in the permanent collections of more than 30 museums around the world,[8] including Crystal Bridges Museum,[2] K11 Art Foundation in Hong Kong,[8] Los Angeles County Museum of Art, [8] Museum of Modern Art in New York,[8] Oakland Museum of California,[10] Smithsonian American Art Museum,[10] Tate Modern,[8] and Whitney Museum of American Art,[18] as well as the private collections of Michael Dell,[5] Monica Lewinsky's family,[5] and Raymond J. McGuire.[9]

Select Exhibitions

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Awards and honors

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Virtual Conversation with Artist Fred Eversley and Curator Kim Conaty. The Phillipian. February 12, 2022. https://phillipian.net/2022/02/18/virtual-conversation-with-artist-fred-eversley-and-curator-kim-conaty/
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Yablonsky, Linda. Just One of Those Things. Palmer. September 20, 2023. https://palmerpb.com/2023/09/20/fred-eversley-artist-parabolic-lenses-palm-beach/
  3. ^ Smothers, Ronald. F.W. Eversley, Contractor, Dead. New York Times. January 4, 1983. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/04/obituaries/fw-eversley-jr-contractor-dead.html
  4. ^ a b c d Kahn, Howie. Evicted From His Home, Sculptor Fred Eversley Contemplates the Future: After spending over 50 years in Venice, California, the long-overlooked artist now must square up to leaving. Wall Street Journal. February 27, 2019. https://www.wsj.com/articles/evicted-from-his-home-sculptor-fred-eversley-contemplates-the-future-11551276682
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Watlington, Emily. In the 1960s, Fred Eversley Left His NASA Job to Become an Artist. Now, He’s Realizing Ideas 50 years in the Making. Art in America. July 22, 2024. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/fred-eversley-art-science-nasa-pst-1234711350/
  6. ^ a b c d Moss, Betsy. Fred Eversley: 50 Years an Artist Light & Space & Energy. Muscarelle Museum of Art. https://muscarelle.wm.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Fred-Eversley-50-Years-an-Artist-Press-Release.pdf
  7. ^ a b c Russo, Carolyn. The Science of Frederick Eversley’s Art. National Air and Space Museum. February 26, 2021. https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/science-frederick-eversleys-art
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h CMU to Award Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree to Fred Eversley. Carnegie Mellon University. May 5, 2023. https://art.cmu.edu/news/school/fred-eversley-honorary-doctor-of-fine-arts-2/
  9. ^ a b c d e f Oral history interview with Frederick Eversley (8/19/2020) by Nyssa Chow. Pandemic Oral History Project. Smithsonian Archives of American Art. August 19, 2020. https://www.aaa.si.edu/download_pdf_transcript/ajax?record_id=edanmdm-AAADCD_oh_21978
  10. ^ a b c Henry Ghent, 8 Artistes Afro-Américains. Genève: Musée Rath, 1971: pages 46–51.
  11. ^ a b Jones, Kellie. Now Dig This! Art & Black Los Angeles 1960-1980. Hammer Museum, UCLA. 2011. isbn=978-3-7913-5136-0
  12. ^ a b c d e f The Rose Art Museum Presents Fred Eversley: Black, White, Gray. News Release. Rose Museum. 2017. https://www.brandeis.edu/rose/_pdfs/2017%20Press%20Releases/PR_Fred_Eversley.pdf
  13. ^ a b Sheets, Hilarie M. The Artist Who Throws Newton a Curve. New York Times. September 6, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/06/arts/design/sculptor-eversley-mayne-orange-county-museums-art.html
  14. ^ a b c DeRobles, Kikesa Kimbwala DeRobles. Fred Eversley, Howard University, and World Building from the Inside Out. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. March 26, 2021. https://crystalbridges.org/blog/fred-eversley-howard-university-and-world-building-from-the-inside-out/
  15. ^ Lewis, Samella. African American Art and Artists. University of California Press. 2003.
  16. ^ "Frederick Eversley". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  17. ^ "Frederick Eversley»Pacific Standard Time at the Getty". Pacific Standard Time at the Getty. Retrieved 2019-02-17.
  18. ^ "Fred Eversley". Whitney Museum. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
  19. ^ 1970 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Sculpture. Whitney Museum. Dec 12, 1970–Feb 7, 1971. https://whitney.org/exhibitions/annual-1970
  20. ^ Whitney Biennial 1973: Contemporary American Art. Whitney Museum. Jan 10–Mar 18, 1973. https://whitney.org/exhibitions/biennial-1973
  21. ^ {{cite web | author= | year=2017| title=Blue Para, (cast polyester resin). | work=Fred Eversley: Black, White, Gray and Transparent Color | publisher=Muscarelle Museum of Art
  22. ^ The Benton Museum of Art Receives Planning and Research Grant for the Next Pacific Standard Time | Exhibition Fred Eversley to Be Part of Region-Wide Collaboration Opening in 2024 that Explores Intersections of Art and Science https://www.pomona.edu/museum/news/2021/06/17-benton-museum-art-receives-planning-and-research-grant-next-pacific-standard-time
  23. ^ Particles and Waves: Southern California Abstraction and Science, 1945–1990. Palm Springs Art Museum. 2024. https://www.psmuseum.org/art/exhibitions/particle-and-waves; Gallery: Frederick John Eversley, https://www.psmuseum.org/art/exhibitions/particle-and-waves
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