Western Connecticut State University Adjunct Professor of Art David Boyajian will complete a commissioned project this summer that will create a “gateway” sculptural installation in the pedestrian walkway and on the adjacent exterior walls of the State of Connecticut’s newest office building along the Connecticut River at 450 Columbus Blvd. in Hartford.
Boyajian, whose extensive works in steel, bronze and wood over a career spanning more than 30 years include dynamic and abstract indoor sculptures and monumental public and private outdoor installations, won the commission from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts to install the sculptural works at the fully renovated state office complex that opened in summer 2016. The installation, titled “Flourish,” represents an artistic expression of the natural beauty and diversity of Connecticut’s forests, inspired in part by
the historical tradition of the Charter Oak during Connecticut’s colonial era and early years of statehood.
The first phase of Boyajian’s installation involved the building of a free-standing sculpture that serves as a creative gateway outside the entrance to the 450 Columbus Blvd. complex. Conlon Engineering LLC, a Brookfield-based engineering firm that advised the artist on the structural integrity and performance of the sculpture during its design and construction, observed in its website description of the project that Boyajian has created a “graceful gateway sculpture” that evokes “New England’s historic landscape and modern workings. The complex structure is fabricated from stainless steel tubes fabricated into curves of varying radii interwoven to resemble the wooded landscape throughout the state.”
The second phase of the installation, expected to be completed in June, will cover the wall below the walkway with a large relief composed of positive and negative cut-out images of branches and leaves, reminiscent of a young grove of oak trees.
Boyajian has been a member of the WCSU Department of Art faculty since 2006 and is the owner and master sculptor of David Boyajian Sculpture Studio in New Fairfield. He received a B.F.A. from Alfred University and an M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute Rinehart School of Sculpture, and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Boyajian served early in his career as an assistant to internationally renowned figurative artists Wolfgang Behl, Elbert Weinberg and Andrew Coppola, and has established his own reputation as a leading contemporary sculptor through exhibitions and installations of his works across the United States.
In his artist statement, Boyajian observed that “the elements of nature are present in all of my work, from personal to private and public commissions. In creating public art, I am one of many authors writing the history of man’s existence, and that of his attempt to rationally construct and give relevance to his emotional, physical and spiritual connection to the world. This endeavor continually brings me back to the cycle of nature and its poignant synchronicity to human evolution.”
For more information, contact the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.