Robert Lucas Chambers (born 1958) is an American sculptor from

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. His most recent public artwork is the South Miami Dade Art and

Cultural Center A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run. Africa * ...

. 'Light Field' and 'Adze' and 'Celt'.

Background and education

He received a BFA from

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

in 1983 and an MA from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

in 1990. He returned later to teach at University of Miami and New York University. and is married to Danish-born painter

Mette Tommerup Mette Tommerup (born 1969) is a painter from Denmark, who lives and works in Miami. She is best known for creating large-scale works where she activates canvases by subjecting them to natural elements such as immersing them in ocean water, putti ...

Collections

His sculptures appear in the permanent collections of the

Kemper Museum Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum. Founders The core of the museum's per ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York City, and the

Miami Art Museum Miami is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a population of 6.14 million, is the second-largest metropolitan ...

. The son of an artist mother and a molecular scientist father, Chambers often includes scientific motifs in his sculptures. He describes his work as having "a sense of experimental playfulness. The rigidity of science, chemistry and physics is broken by a desire to re-contextualize empirical research thru a sculptor's vantage point. He is represented by

Emerson Dorsch Gallery The Emerson Dorsch Gallery, founded in 1991 as the Dorsch Gallery, is an art gallery in Miami, Florida, United States founded by Brook Dorsch. Initially located in Dorsch's 2nd story apartment over Parkway Drugs on Coral Way, the gallery featured ...

in Miami. " Chambers has also used debris from Florida

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

s in his work. Chambers' 2004 sculpture "Sugabus", 45 globes of bronze representing the elements of a

sucrose Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...

molecule in the shape of a poodle, appears at

Laumeier Sculpture Park Laumeier Sculpture Park is a 105-acre open-air museum and sculpture park located in Sunset Hills, Missouri, near St. Louis. Laumeier is maintained in partnership with St. Louis County Parks and Recreation Department. It houses over 70 large-sca ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

. The work's title is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "sugar" and

Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus ( or ; ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a polycephaly, multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Greek underworld, underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring o ...

, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld in ancient

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

. The sculpture is and weights .

Art Basel Miami

During

Art Basel Miami Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (US), Hong Kong and Paris. Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, and ...

in November 2007, Chambers installed a sculpture titled "Rotorelief" on roof of the Sagamore Hotel. The sculpture consisted of a working helicopter, the blades of which had been replaced by hypnotic discs.

Bakehouse Art Complex

During the fall of 2018, Chambers was involved with a special hay installation at

Bakehouse Art Complex Bakehouse Art Complex is an arts organization in Miami, Florida, United States. Founded in 1985, it comprises studio spaces, art production facilities, galleries, and educational programming. Mission Bakehouse Art Complex is operated as a non-p ...

, which involved creating a social area with bales of hay for an art event. He worked with a class from Florida International University to bring the project to fruition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chambers, Robert Living people 20th-century American sculptors New York University alumni University of Miami alumni University of Miami faculty 1958 births 21st-century American sculptors Artists from Miami Sculptors from Florida