Currently on View at Galerie du Sacré Coeur

“The Audience” is a conceptual sculpture show by Pensacola-based artist, Drew Rehwinkel. It explores the impact of spectatorship on creation, both during creation and after the creative process is complete.

The Audience is a collection of four, monumental bronze sculptures, each a form of self-portrait of the artist. The process of creating one of these sculptures is arduous, taking many months, first in modeling the piece in clay, and second in transforming that into poured metal through the process of mold-making and casting, an art all of its own. The length of the process is formidable. A single sculpture represents hundreds of hours of painstaking decision-making. To combat the frustration of working for months without seeing a finished piece, Drew began creating these masks, each inspired by and representing a gesture, an emotion, or a voice. Polar opposite to his work in bronze, Drew creates each mask in an hour or two, sometimes using a well-known face as a guide, and sometimes diving purely into imagination. Regardless, the process of building the archetypes of his audience in clay is the goal and the creation itself is energizing and enabling for grander projects. Much as they are arranged at this show, the masks line the wall of his studio and quite literally watch him as he works.

“As an artist, we are always watched - by loved ones, by other artists, by potential customers, and by our own inner voices. Sometimes our audience is supportive, and at other times it is judgmental. I am sure I speak for many artists when I admit that my harshest audience is the one inside my own head. In many ways, this show celebrates the triumph of creating my bronze self-portraits, while weathering the stares, suggestions, and comments, positive and negative alike, both from outsiders and from myself.

Each mask represents a gesture, an emotion, a response - impacts that can buoy the creative process or weigh it down. Ultimately, would the bronze sculptures be what they are if they were created without the pressure of an audience? Most definitely not, and thus the masks themselves become both creator and created, and become pieces that can stand on their (figurative) own two feet.”