Loren Madsen

 

Arts Council of Mendocino County Board

 

Loren Madsen | Director

loren-madsenLoren Madsen has an extensive background in sculpture, conceptual art and other media and has exhibited internationally. His work has been featured in museums nationwide and in France, Japan, and Canada. Originally from the East Bay, he has received the New Talent Purchase Award from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources, and Honorable Mention in the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Competition in 1981.

His first solo exhibition, in Los Angeles in 1973, consisted of precariously balanced bricks rooted by gravity and friction. An earthquake destroyed the show before it opened. “Despite this divine critique,” says Madsen, “I continued with these early sculptures, which mutated into large site-specific installations, of which the only record is photographs.”

By 1994 he was using the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. and other sources to turn data into sculpture and prints. “These are broadly historical if the viewer chooses to engage with the information,” Madsen explains, “and abstract if the viewer does not.” He also designs and builds furniture. Samples of his recent art can be seen at www.newloren.com.

Madsen joins other ACMC board members Hal Wagenet, President; Anne Beck,Vice-President; Trudy McCreanor, Treasurer; Jan Stephens and Larain Matheson, Co-Secretaries; Susan O. Gordon and Brandon Kight in supporting the Arts Council’s mission to enrich the quality of life in Mendocino County through promotion of the arts and cultivation of creative communities. Says Madsen: “I feel that an artist best contributes by keeping a voice in the conversation through his or her art.” Arts Council executive director Alyssum Wier states, “We are so pleased to have Loren join the board of directors. Loren first became involved with the Arts Council in 2011 during the HeART of Laytonville Welcome Banner project and his humor, intelligence, experience in the arts, and finger on the pulse of the North County will make him a wonderful addition to an engaged, harmonious, and diverse board of directors supporting the Arts Council’s pursuit of its mission.”