Julie Tremblay turns scraps of tin-plated steel sheet metal that’s been stamped out to make bottle caps and transforms them into sculpted art.
Pop cap art? It’s upcycling taken to its most inspired extreme. Her faceless figures float eerie and effortless in spite of their heavy-metal soul.
“The pieces are so light,” Tremblay said. “I feel like air is as much a material as the metal. It’s both the negative and positive spaces that make the sculpture. I’ve become increasingly interested in finding materials that allow me to wrap the air around it in a sense. Pieces that are see-through and that are light contrast with the tradition of sculpture, which is associated with bronze and heaviness.”
Now through Nov. 4 Tremblay’s work is on display in the Contemporary Collectors Gallery at the in Roslyn. It’s the first museum exhibition for the 39-year-old Quebec native.
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Tremblay pokes at one of her sculptures suspended from the ceiling.
“People are attracted to the fragility,” she said.
She also works with chicken wire and mosquito netting, but discovered the discarded industrial sheet metal while living in Copenhagen before returning to New York in 2010. Now it defines her signature style.
Her work fetches $10,000 and up.
“It’s flexible and yet it bounces back,” Tremblay said. “So it’s not that delicate. I’d be more worried for the person bumping into it. They’re sharp.”
Sharp to the touch and the eye.
