Steve Feren

Steven Feren was born in 1951 and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He received his initial training at the Dayton Art Institute and later studied at Alfred University where he worked as a Teaching Assistant, receiving the BFA degree in sculpture in 1979. He attended Rutgers University as a Teaching Assistant and earned the Master of Fine Arts degree in 1981. He was an assistant at the Mason Gross School of Art in New Brunswick, NJ (1979-80) before taking positions at Douglas College (New Brunswick, NJ) and Morris County College (Dover, NJ) during 1981-82 and most recently, Feren was Professor of Art, and head of the Glass Department, at the University of Wisconsin/Madison from 1983- 2013.

Best known for his glass works, Feren creates sculptural objects combining a variety of media utilizing cast and blown glass with steel, aluminum, mosaics, ceramic, concrete, acrylics, screened images, painted or drawn elements, fiber optics, LEDs, neon and fluorescent light. His work is a manifestation of a desire to create work that is accessible, yet sheds light on the complexity of the human condition. He is concerned with the persistence of life and the miracle of discovery. His art looks for joy to cultivate faith. He writes in an exhibition catalog, “I am interested in work that is physically and historically rooted yet speaks to the spirit, work that is straight forward, but can operate mysteriously. There are no simple answers to matters of the heart.” Some of his inspirational points of departure include outsider art and the spirit of artists like: Pieter Brueghel, Constantin Brancusi, Mark Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antonio Gaudi, Philip Guston, Edward Kienholz, Joan Miro, and many other inventive, idiosyncratic models.

Along with his glass works, he creates sculpture for public spaces since 1980 to link his role as an artist to the community. He feels that art in the public forum does not often have the levels of meaning that can sustain over time. His interest is to create a form of art that is awkward on some levels, but able to transcend its limitations on others. He pushes the limits of his works to operate on many levels through the physical and nonphysical phenomenon of his materials and imagery.

Winter Moose, concrete, glass and aluminum