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AMERICAN CRAFT COUNCIL OPEN STUDIOS: TERRY HOLZGREEN

Author: Lindsey Shook

The pandemic has pushed pause on many wonderful industry events that we depend on for discovering talented artists. However, the American Craft Council did not let the physical limitations on gathering deter their annual efforts to share the work of a diverse set of California makers. This week, they launched Craft Week, a virtual presentation of the Bay Area’s thriving handmade community through an e-commerce platform that allows you to shop and learn about the participating artists. Today, we launch a series of interviews with select Council members that are creating rare, handmade pieces for the design community, including Terry Holzgreen who makes art furniture and accessories out of wood.

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AMERICAN CRAFT

Andrew Zoellner, editor in chief of Popular Woodworking writing for American Craft in an article titled “From Fragments” said, “Nearly four decades into his career as a carpenter and cabinetmaker in Los Angeles, Terry Holzgreen was burning the candle at both ends. He was managing his full-time business and providing care for his widowed father-in-law, mother, and an ill brother. Holzgreen was near the breaking point when a cabinet job barely covered the cost of materials. A close call with a band saw was the final straw and he stopped taking on work for hire. But Holzgreen continued working with wood, following his own creative instincts.

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BALTIMORE CRAFT WEEK

Take Note of These Baltimore Craft Week Favorites curated by Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, professor emerita, former dean of Graduate Studies, and founding director of the Center for Race and Culture, Maryland Institute College of Art stated, “Wood sculptors all face the same challenges at the end of the day. What to do with the remains, the random bits and pieces of wood from more focused projects. I was struck by the beauty of Holzgreen's lidded wooden boxes, bowls, benches, and tables-using the remains to design objects of  sublime beauty and extraordinary craftsmanship. An endless variety of irregular shaped woods- poplar, pine, palm, bamboo, walnut, birch- are deftly assembled to create statements that can be metaphors for the possibilities of humanity seeking harmony and resolve in a world in desperate need of healing. Not to be missed is a lidded box titled “Cause Democracy Still Got Legs,” a prophetic commentary on America's political catharsis. The legs of the box, dried in a bowed formation, combined with the assembled remains, becomes a stellar statement of art, politics, and beauty.”

 
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AMERICAN CRAFT COUNCIL

In 2020 these new works won the Award of Excellence for emerging artists in Hip Pop Program at the American Craft Council Show, San Francisco, CA. The Council wrote, “Holzgreen’s work stood out not only for his beautiful forms and vessels, but also his practice of using scraps from his former life as a cabinetmaker and fallen or felled urban trees.” Jennifer Morla, juror and owner of Jennifer Morla of San Francisco wrote, “Beauty, craft, a unique vision, and sustainability are all reasons to give Terry this Award of Excellence.”

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