Pam Foss, Sculptor

 

I am a native of Atlantic City, New Jersey.  I was drawn to the visual arts at an early age, receiving my first formal training at Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey.   Unable to afford college, I immediately entered the workforce and married a few years later spending the next several years raising our three children.

 

I studied sculpture on my own and by apprenticing with various artists as time permitted while my children were growing-up.  My career as a full time visual artist began in 1980 with an emphasis on creating a series of equine bronze sculptures.  Although sculpture in its many forms is my favorite medium, I also enjoy creating art in a wide variety of other media including painting, assemblage, illustration, cartooning, computer graphics, and pop-up cards and books.

 

The current phase of my career is primarily devoted to creating abstract bas-relief sculpture in a variety of media including hand-made paper, resin, bronze, and Styrofoam as well as a series of historically based pop-up dioramas depicting some of the most influential galleries and artist studios in the history of modern art.

 

 My inspiration comes from having been fortunate enough to live an amazing, well-travelled life that has provided me with an endless number of intriguing subjects for my work.

 

Public Sculpture

The Arts Club of Washington 2017*

Ohio State University Veterinary Center, 2016

Calvert School, Baltimore, Maryland 2004

East Chase Mall, Montgomery, Alabama 2004

Westland Mall, Knoxville, Tennessee 1994

Quiet Waters Park, Annapolis, MD 1991

Riverchase Galleria, Birmingham, Alabama 1986

Hialeah Park, Miami, Florida 1982

State of New York, Aqueduct Race Track 1983

Chesapeake Bay Chesapeake Bay Foundation, William C Baker Center Tangier Island, VA

 *Originally installed in the Monroe Building, Washington DC 1991

 

Corporate Collections (partial list)

Louis Dreyfus Property Group

Key Bank Corporation, Albany, New York

Jim Wilson Associates, Montgomery, Alabama

Melon Bank, Pittsburgh PA

New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc.

Edward J Debartolo Corporation. Youngstown OH

Crown Controls Corporation, New Bremen, OH

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York, NY

Northwestern Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, WI

Hialeah Park, Miami, FL

McDonalds, CLP Corporation, Gadsden, AL

Krapf Bus Company, Chester PA

 

Museum Collections:

Kentucky Derby Museum, Louisville KY

 

Solo Shows

Hoffberger Gallery, Baltimore MD/2010

Willow Gallery at Quiet Waters Park, Annapolis, MD/ 2011

Phoenix Gallery, Phoenix MD/2012

Philip Morton Gallery, Rehoboth DE/2014

Art Centers of Bonita Springs 2019

 

Group Shows (partial list)

International Sculpture Center/Artsy Professional Members Show August 2-31 2021

Art Centers of Bonita Springs (Best in Show Second Nature July 2018)

Pam Foss Gallery, Chestertown, MD 2014-15

The Art of Stewardship Juried Exhibit, Chestertown River Arts (November 2014)

6th Biennial Regional Juried Exhibition, Rehoboth Delaware (October 2014)

Rehoboth Art League DE winner (Louise Chambers Corkran Award) best sculpture 2014

Pam Foss Gallery, St Michaels, MD 2012-2014

Women’s Caucus for the Arts, Women’s Rights and Artists Perspective, Pam Foss Gallery (November 2013) Pam Foss Gallery, St Michaels, MD 2012-2014

Women’s Caucus for the Arts, The Petroleum Paradox, Denise Bibro Gallery, NY, NY 2012

Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD, winner (A Brittain Banghart Award Jackson Pollock) 2008

Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, New York, NY 2007 

John T Mather Memorial Hospital Annual Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit 1992

Salmagundi Club, NY, NY (third place, Angle of Attack) 1990

Art Expo, Los Angeles CA 1987

Art Expo, New York 1983, 1984, 1985

Philadelphia Art Show, Philadelphia, PA 1983, 1984, 1985  

Rockefeller Center, New York, NY 1984

American Academy of Equine Art, Tufts University, Hamilton MA 1983

 

Gallery Shows (partial list)

Trade Alley Arts, Hickory NC

Four Corners Gallery, Mooresville, NC

Gallery 206, Naples, FL

Gallery 50 Contemporary, Rehoboth, De

Trippe Gallery, Easton MD

Clark Gallery, St Michaels, MD

Pam Foss Gallery St Michaels & Chestertown and  St Michaels, MD

Philip Morton Gallery, Rehoboth, DE

Anita Peghini-Raber Gallery, Rehoboth, DE

West Annapolis Art Gallery, Annapolis, MD

Hardcastle Gallery, Centreville, DE

Bucks County Gallery, New Hope, PA

Midtown Gallery, New York, NY

Hobe Sound Gallery, Hobe Sound, FL

Park Shore Gallery, Naples, FL

The Sportsmen’s Edge, New York, NY

King Gallery, New York, NY

Nan Miller Gallery, Rochester, NY

Meisner Gallery, New York, NY

The Painted Critter, Lambertville, NJ

Merriam Fisher Gallery, Washington, DC

Beresford Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY

Dayspring Gallery, Saratoga Springs NY

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Professional Associations

Mooresville Arts

International Association of Papermaking Artists

International Sculpture Center

Art Centers of Bonita Springs

 

Books & Catalogues (partial)

 

IAPMA Bulletin 2020

Women’s Rights, An Artist’s Perspective 2013 Women’s Caucus of the Arts

Contemporary Sculpture, Schiffer Books June, 2012

Women’s Caucus of the Arts, Petroleum Paradox Exhibition Catalog (Load of Bull) May 24-June 23, 2012

Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, (111th annual exhibit catalog) 2007

The Sportsman’s Edge, NY, NY 1981 (cover)   

 

Press/Newspaper (partial)

Chestertown Spy (video interview)

Kent County News

Delaware Shore News

New York Times

Washington Post

Albany Times Union

Toronto Star

Miami Herald

Bucks County Herald

Hunterdon, Democrat

The Capital

Naples Daily News

Princeton Packet

Schenectady Gazette

Star Democrat

 

Press/Magazines (partial)

Departures

Home Companion

Southwest Art

Hunterdon Life

Prime

The Horsemen’s Journal

Spur

Thoroughbred Record

Blood Horse

 

Press/Television

The Ellen Show

The Phil Donahue Show

PM Magazine

Wide World of Sports

 

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Online Press/Blogs

Artfcity.com

Since we launched our Color Wheel series, Pam Foss has submitted images every week. Foss’s most recent series: “Out of the Blue.” On Trend. This series of aquatic sculptures evoke frothy waves, with a particular shade of light periwinkle that’s derived from blue foam. We don’t have images of the full piece, which we’re told involves 84 individual sculptures groups together to form a  foot-tall, 4 foot-wide installation, but we figured, why not list the submission anyway? We see a little Judy Chicago and Georgia O’Keefe influence and that’s generally a good thing.

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Whitney Kimball, ArtFCity.com October 29, 2013

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Dear Ms. Foss—my apologies for not responding sooner. I did indeed see the dioramas—intriguing, enjoyable, even impressive. And I’m grateful for the attention they bring to Peggy and to Kiesler and to their story. Forgive the ignorance, or even ingenuousness—what does one do with them?   They aren’t multiples for sale I don’t suppose? If the answer is: they are what they are, then they are splendid.

 

Philip Rylands

Director, Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Foundation Director for Italy

January 18, 2014

 

Pam, I am just amazed by the extraordinary work you did on the diorama of the AOTC Gallery!  It looks meticulously done; you must be very skillful.  Plus the whole diorama really brings the gallery to life; in many ways I like it better than the pop-up in the AOTC Gallery exhibit book.  There's something about a

box….  Can you imagine how Peggy would have loved it?

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Mary Dearborn

Author, Mistress of Modernism the Life of Peggy Guggenheim

 

I don't believe I had seen these. . .how fascinating. . .thanks for keep Art of This Century alive.

 

Susan Davidson

Curator

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

 

“Her works are truly representative of the actual model – her works catch the excitement of each model in every form,” Jim Wilson, developer of Riverchase Galleria.  He decided to place her sculpture “The Great Blues” in the Galleria so every one might enjoy the splendid beauty of this work.

 “I was struck by the sculptures (Angle of Attack) vivid portrayal of beauty and savagery in the same instant,”    “It seems to capture much of life as we see it.” 

 

Brigadier General Peter J. Boylan,  Commandant of Cadets, U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  

Taking a tour of the KeyCorp collection with the CEO in gray pinstripes reveals a side of (Victor) Riley the public doesn’t see.  Amid his beloved art collection, he is a kid in a candy store. He stops at a stunning life size bronze sculpture of an eagle swooping in for a kill.  The artist is Pam Foss from New York; its title is “Angle of Attack” Riley ignores the discreet “do not touch” sign and lovingly strokes the bird’s perfectly rendered chest feathers.  “She has really captures these feathers”, Riley says, “Just feel that.  What detail.  It’s the type of sculpture I can sit and stare at all day.”              

 

Paul Grondahl Albany Times Union January 1989

 

“The real surprise at Dayspring Gallery is the bronze sculptures of local artist Pam Foss.  Done as limited editions of 15-20 each, the bronzes were cast by the lost wax method at a Long Island foundry and mark Foss as a sculptor to be reckoned with-now and in the future.”

 

Peg Churchill Wright Schenectady Gazette August 26 1982

 

Along with the captivating oils and delicate graphics showing at Dayspring Gallery is a magnificent bronze sculpture by Pam Foss, a Saratoga artist of extraordinary gifts.  Point to Point is small enough to be a library table piece.  A steeplechase, where one horse is making the jump over another fallen horse and rider, at the exact moment of a spill. Using the lost wax technique, Foss has been able to capture subtle facial expressions and impossible minute detail as well as the precise moment of action. 

 

It is one thing to paint from photographs of animals moving at great speed, but quite another to execute a split second of complicated movement in the round.  Foss could well turn out to be the Remington of the racetrack.

 

Lucille, Nitzberg

Sunday Times Union

August 15, 1982

 

“Pam Foss is one of America’s leading equine sculptors.  Her Bronzes are greeted with enthusiasm wherever they are exhibited and it is a compliment to her enormous talent that they are eagerly sought after by collectors.”

 

Sean Byrne, Racing journalist Thoroughbred Record

 

Pam Foss’s impressive “Great Blue Heron” an animated interpretation of the birds on the cusp of flight far outstrips the rest of the field of figurative sculptures in this year’s show.

 

Helen A. Harrison, staff writer The New York Times August 8, 1993

 

 

“Pam Foss’s animal images in bronze are gracefully executed and finished with strikingly colorful patinas,”

Naples Daily News, December 1, 1989

 

 

“Annapolitans own several pieces of public sculpture.  A recent edition to our collection has been installed at Quiet Waters Park.  Sculpted by local artist Pam Foss, the life size bronze of two impressive herons is well-suited to its new home.

 

Situated next to the visitor’s center high on a bluff, the sculpture is not fully revealed until one climbs the staircase from the road.  Perched on a tree branch, the herons stretch in an “S” shaped composition, producing a sense of imminent movement, the piece thus interacts with the viewer from all angles.

 

Precise realism delineates the sculpture and its harmony with the Victorian garden space.  Ms. Foss has produced a variety of textures and colors in the piece, making it as interesting to explore the piece close up as it is from afar.  The park is a breathtakingly beautiful place and the herons are worthy guardians.”

 

New in Town by Carol Falk the Capital, December 15 1990

 

I cannot begin to tell you how pleased I am with the bronzes you created of my beloved ST Bernard’s April, May, and June.

 

Thanks to you, they will forever serve as sentinels of Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, keeping watch over an area where so many animals receive the best of care.

 

With gratitude,

Cynthia Knight

 

 

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