Heidi Herrera
Cataloguer
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Lot 57
AARON KRAMER(B. 1963)The Journey, 2025
23 April – 2 May 2025, 12:00 PDT
Online, Los AngelesSold for US$409.60 inc. premium
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Sharon Squires
Head of Department, Post-War & Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
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AARON KRAMER (B. 1963)
The Journey, 2025
signed, titled, inscribed and dated 'Aaron Kramer Aaron Kramer 3/2025 31/32 The Journey' (on the underside)
laser-cut and painted wood automaton construction
6 x 5 x 3 1/2 in.
15.2 x 12.7 x 8.9 cm.
This work is number thirty-one from an edition of thirty-two.
signed, titled, inscribed and dated 'Aaron Kramer Aaron Kramer 3/2025 31/32 The Journey' (on the underside)
laser-cut and painted wood automaton construction
6 x 5 x 3 1/2 in.
15.2 x 12.7 x 8.9 cm.
This work is number thirty-one from an edition of thirty-two.
Footnotes
Provenance
Courtesy of the artist
Exhibited
Erie, Erie Art Museum, Sense of Wonder: Aaron Kramer, 7 June 2024-8 June 2025, another example exhibited
"I am motivated by curiosity and the variety of human beings I have met on this planet. I love to travel where I fill my eyeballs with sights that feed my art and soul. I have come to know many people of many different cultures, opinions and gifts. I have found that those acquaintances who have been afflicted with horrible syndromes or have been marginalized are some of the most insightful people. With my support and advocacy, I feel I can amplify their importance to society." -Aaron Kramer
Artist Statement: As a child I couldn't sit still. My youth was spent on a skateboard or a bike, exploring the southern suburbs of Chicago. Thursday was my favorite day - trash day. I mined the overflowing bins for motors, electronics and raw materials. Forts, tree houses and go-karts were scraped together from the random bits. Hungry to create, I took all of the woodshop, metalworking, and art classes from teachers who would become important mentors. By junior year, I was teaching the freshmen how to gas weld. This sharing of knowledge would continue throughout my life as an artist, educator and mentor.
My early art was a blend of design, steampunk, and found objects all with a built aesthetic. Wearables were carved, bound, riveted, and screwed together from found and reimagined materials. Tabletop scale objects were woven from reclaimed street sweeper bristles with trapped stamp balls inside. Furniture, lighting, and display fixtures were made from vintage objects.
In the 1990's my sculpture began to imply a mechanical purpose. As I reintroduced welding into my repertoire, I began envisioning wire forms for woven constructions and baskets. This idea of containment developed further when the objects inside became moveable, inspired by the earliest sonograms of my first child. I continue to explore the mechanical recreation of life, or automata, blurring the boundaries between the animate and inanimate.
As a robotics mentor, I emphasize Design Thinking to make mechanical contraptions. This process incorporates design, prototype, test, fail and repeat until a solution is achieved. I feel it is important to empower children through tool use. With a maker mentality, they are better prepared to construct their own futures. Approaching problem solving with an engineering and a failure positive mindset leads to successful outcomes. Creativity and curiosity are the building blocks to achieving a lifelong sense of wonder.
I teach children how to create sustainable art objects using recycled materials and power tools. I am actively involved with the Rediscover Center, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles, California, where I have been on the board since 2015. I started a summer Tinkering Camp for kids as well as Cardboard City, a free public makerspace where families create sculptures from cardboard. I continue to produce fine art for corporations, hospitality, and private clients.