Demonstration: 10 a.m.
Workshop: 12 p.m.
Coinciding with Letting the River Spill: TXST Art and Design Alumni Exhibition, TXST Galleries presents a forging demonstration and workshop led by artist and TXST alumnus Alexander Kamelhair.
Kamelhair will demonstrate the age-old art of shaping metal with heat and hammers. This workshop offers a rare opportunity to experience the physicality and precision of a practice that has connected makers to material and form for thousands of years.
Alexander Kamelhair is a material and process driven artist, giving equal attention to both conceptual and studio practice. These values generally manifest in the creation of substantial material objects and/or place-making through installation or intervention in remote landscapes. He is particularly interested in the physical properties of his materials and the juxtaposition of these qualities against both metaphysical and formal negative space. Through this preoccupation, an exploration of ontological concerns has become a recurring motif in his practice. He has worked as a journeyman blacksmith in Austria, Spain, Estonia, and Italy, he holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Texas State University in San Marcos TX, and a Master of Arts degree from the Estonian Academy of Art in Tallinn. He currently resides in the Big Bend region of Far West Texas, USA where he draws inspiration from the surrounding landscape and the distinct geological features and floral phenomena that distinguish the Chihuahuan desert.