Simon Berson
Simon Berson is a native New York state artist known for his expressive, figurative wire sculptures and his more abstract engineered assemblages, and collages of drawings mixed with found images and hardware components.
Simon “draws” with ease in three-dimensional space, with wire as his ink. The thin metal strands lightly mark and bind empty space for the viewer to fill with their own imagination. Long, graceful lines accentuate his wire figures’ sense of motion. Leaping ballerinas and swinging athletes are among the human forms captured in cresting, snapshot moments of weightlessness or impact.
Round midnight, 2019
Mixed media (color pencil /collage in a foam core board),
91.44 x 91.44 cm
Salience detection, 2021
mixed media (Pencil/collage in Cardboard),
61 x 76.2cm
Sum- Thing, 2020
mixed media (color pencil/collage in a foam core board), 61 x 76.2 cm
Wetware Dreams, 2021
mixed media (color pencil/collage in a foam core board), 61 x 83 cm
Artist Statement
It’s a process. The drawing/collages begin with a series of organic shapes (the primary component parts), which are assembled and interlocked into an aesthetically pleasing overall superstructure. Technical illustrations and photos from technical journals, chosen for color and texture, are added as necessary for balance and contrast.
The observer puzzles over the resultant images that combine organic and inorganic forms. Which is why I call it “Industrial Surrealism”. Do these images depict a kind of machine, or an alien landscape? In either case, the work invokes a thoughtful response..