Craig Schaffer

Craig Schaffer (American, b. 1949) received his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz and his M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, Craig maintains two studios: one in Washington, D.C. and the other in Pietrasanta, Italy. Craig has completed public commissions for the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, the Mathematical Association of America, Brown Tower Mathematics Building at Ohio State University, Baptist Hospital Desoto in Memphis, the Hualien Cultural Center in Taiwan, the Leo Yassenoff Jewish Community Center in Columbus, and the Robins Center for Philanthropy.

Craig Schaffer’s Welded Fractal Series is inspired by the infinitely repetitive building blocks of all elements of life. In his sculptures, Craig explores the shapes created by the stems and leaves of plants as they reach for the light, the convoluted unfurling of clouds, the formation and fracturing of mountains, and the jaggedness of the coastline as it kisses the sea. Real life is nonlinear and reflective, so the spiraled paths carved in our consciousness by these natural processes are mirrored in Craig’s work. His sculptures are dynamic and powerful meditations on the reality of repetition in nature and life. This series was featured in the Morgan Stanley Garden at the 2017 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The Infinite Loop sculptures use forms with infinite surfaces to expand our concepts of processes usually viewed as linear. Turning the classic 2-part hourglass form inside-out could embody cyclical Time. Making the DNA double helix into an infinite form addresses the cyclical and reflexive nature of Life.

Submitted by Artist's Proof