Vivien Collens
Cornwall on Hudson, NY, NY
Vivien Abrams Collens is a New York artist focusing on sculpture and public art since 2017 after years of creating paintings and painting installations.
Message
Vivien Abrams Collens is a senior abstract artist whose current practice focuses on large scale site-specific or site responsive sculpture installations. She received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 and MFA from Instituto Allende in 1971. She worked at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Cleveland Museum of art while beginning her studio practice of constructed paintings and wall installations.
In 1977, after achieving regional recognition for her large relief wall constructions she moved from Cleveland, Ohio to NYC to find a wider audience for her work. She found that audience in NYC, exhibiting there and elsewhere, and receiving numerous residency fellowships. In 1985 she moved to the Hudson Valley to raise her family and continue her work.
Since learning to weld in 2017 at age 70 during a sculpture residency at Salem Art Works, Collens has created welded sculptures in her studio in Cornwall, NY. Her large scale public sculpture has been exhibited in public sites in cities, sculpture parks and museums.
Statement
My two main lines of inquiry have been architectural/geometric forms and their relation to portrayals of energy. My Froebel’s Gifts series is based on the teachings of Friedrich Froebel, who invented Kindergarten in Germany in 1838. He gave children basic 3-dimensional geometric forms to play with, believing that through play they could sharpen their perception and understanding of math, physics and engineering. Not only was Maria Montessori influenced by him, but so were Buckminster Fuller and Frank Lloyd Wright. Learning about Froebel led me to see him as the father of modern design and architecture and inspired me to create architectural sculptures invoking the spirit of play.
Other series. such as “The Romance of Electricity” , the “Squirt” sculptures, and recently the Angry Teapot ceramic series, are investigations into depictions of energy.
In 2015, after decades of making 3D painted wall installations, which I thought of as paintings, I playfully arranged painted wood scraps in a box and made my first freestanding sculpture. These eventually became my “City Blocks” sculptures, which were exhibited in Gensler’s NYC gallery that year with my Urban Studies paintings. Seeing them there, I decided to seriously pursue sculpture. I worked in cardboard and wood until a 2017 sculpture residency at Salem Art Works where at age 70 I learned to weld. Now I focus primarily on public sculpture of welded aluminum, and smaller scale works in ceramic or met
My work is imbued with the energy which inspires it. To reflect human interaction with the natural world, I like to unify the organic or gestural and geometric. the two directions of my practice.
Creating sculpture allows me to use form as well as color to make objects which embody my disparate thoughts, memories, interests, and ideas. I am passionate about Public Art because it becomes part of the community and its conversations, available for people to see at any time.
Vivien Collens
Feb. 5, 2025