Robert William Smart is an American artist who works with programmable lighting technologies. Primarily, his work consists of large-scale public art installations in metal and glass for various cities and universities. Smart has taught sculpture and drawing for various colleges and universities.

Career

In 1999, Smart created an exhibition at the

Boston Cyberarts Festival The Boston Cyberarts Festival used to be the largest festival of digital art, performance and film created using new technology in the USA. Around 22,000 people attended the festival in 2007 where they witnessed the work of over 200 artists fr ...

, which later became a permanent interactive computer installation entitled ''Time'' within the main lobby at the

Boston University Photonics Center The Boston University Photonics Center (BUPC) is a building and research center owned by Boston University. The 10-floor building opened in June 1997, finished at a cost of $78.4 million. The center specializes in developing and commercializing ...

. In 2007, Smart installed the

corten steel Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys that form a stable external layer of rust that eliminates the need for painti ...

public art sculpture entitled ''SS Core'' Sphere purchased by the city of

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

and is located on the Northwest end of downtown plaza Kilbourn Avenue Bridge. In 2009, Smart was commissioned to create ''Emitting Waves,'' a public art piece installed at Fire Station #5 in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

. In 2000, Smart was invited to the village

La Souterraine La Souterraine (; Limousin dialect, Limousin: ''La Sotarrana'') is a Communes of France, commune in the west-central French Departments of France, department of Creuse. Geography La Souterraine is an area of farming and light industry, comprisi ...

in central

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

to work at the Les Recontres Multicultural Arts Festival doing performance/sculpture in live cast mask making. In 2001, he went to an iron casting residency at the

Franconia Sculpture Park Franconia Sculpture Park is an outdoor sculpture park in Franconia, Minnesota, United States, that offers a 50-acre outdoor museum, active artist residency program, and a depth and breadth of community arts programming for a diverse and engaged p ...

Shafer, Minnesota Shafer is a city in Chisago County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,045 at the 2010 census. The city was named for Jacob Shafer, a pioneer settler. U.S. Highway 8 serves as a main route for the community. Geography According t ...

. He worked on the plaster casts made in France and turned them into cast iron through the

sand casting Sand casting, also known as sand molded casting, is a metal casting process characterized by using sand—known as ''casting sand''—as the mold material. The term "sand casting" can also refer to an object produced via the sand casting proces ...

process. This is an ongoing work that Smart has maintained since 2005. In 2013, Smart built a 35’ x 10’ x 2’ programmable LED “breathing wall” and seven roll-formed illuminated benches for the Penfield Redevelopment Project, in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

. In 2014, Smart installed a work entitled Ethos for the Sheridan Veterans Memorial at the Sheridan Memorial Park in

Sheridan, Minneapolis Sheridan is a neighborhood in the Northeast community of Minneapolis. Location and characteristics Sheridan's boundaries are 17th and 18th Avenues NE to the north, Washington Street to the east, Broadway Street NE to the south, and the Mississi ...

. Smart integrated cast iron faces of several veterans and family members.

References

External links

Robert Smart - Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smart, Robert W. 1973 births Sculptors from California Artists from Wisconsin 20th-century American artists 21st-century American artists Living people

Career

See also

References

External links