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David Boyajian commissioned to complete major outdoor "gateway" work in Hartford: WCSU art professor installs sculpture at state office building

Image of David Boyajian's "Flourish"
David Boyajian’s “Flourish”

DANBURY, CONN. — Western Connecticut State University Adjunct Professor of Art David Boyajian will complete a commissioned project this summer (2018) 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.

Commissioned public and private works have been featured in more than 40 shows and installations over the past 25 years including “House of Hats” on the CityCenter Green in Danbury, “Genesis” at the Robert Moses Sculpture Garden on the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham University, “Sanctuary” at the 9/11 Living Memorial at Sherwood Island in Westport, “Harvest Gate” at the Main Street Farmers Market in Hartford, and “Lift” at the Canterbury School in New Milford. He has participated in many group exhibitions including sculpture shows in Salisbury and Durham, North Carolina; the SculptureNow event at The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts; and diverse sites from the Ridgefield Guild for Artists and Silvermine Guild in Connecticut to Noho Gallery in New York and the Danville Art Trail in Virginia.

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.

 

 

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York.  Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics  of New England’s best small private universities.