STATEMENT

I began carving in 1974 and have always worked directly (without a model) utilizing the volume of the material and maximizing the limits of the stone.

My sculpture is improvisational - my first inspiration was jazz. In my early years in Berkeley, where so many of my colleagues were doing additive sculpture in metal or ceramics, I learned to treat the stone like a piece of chewing gum which I could pull, push, & bend in any direction.

Twelve years in Carrara, Italy honed my skills, and Italy's artistic heritage clarified my vision. I carved mellifluous musical compositions in Marble. The balance and tension between negative and positive space and the infinite with the finite were -- and still are -- my sculptural concerns.

I've also been rendering imaginary planet surfaces first inspired by satellite photographs of other planets and their moons. these pieces are fascinating to me because of their micro-macroscopic ambiguity.

Stone is a fundamental material. As a man and artist, it is my goal to transform that substance into beauty and give something back to the cosmos. 

- Paul Bloch

Biography

1951 b. 2 November, New York City

1969-73 Studied anthropology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. B.A.,

1973.1971-72 Studied sculpture, Cleveland Institute of Art

1973 Studied Music, Cleveland Institute of Music

1974 Began sculpting, Berkeley, California

1976 Began working in marble, Berkeley.

1980-83 Worked for James Prestini, reproducing his plaster designs in marble.

1984 Recipient of Athena Foundation Grant to sculpt at the Mark Di Suvero Studio, New York City 

1985-97 Lived and worked in Carrara, Italy.

1998-Present Living and working in Santa Fe, NM and Carrara Italy.

Exhibitions

1976 Walton Gallery, San Francisco

1977-78 Forster Goldstrum Gallery, San Francisco1979Walnut Creek Civic Art Center, Walnut Creek CA (catalog)

1979 Rusty Baker Gallery, San Anselmo CA1980-82Victor Fischer Gallery, Orinda and Oakland, CA1984Walnut Creek Civic Art Center

1984 Allan Stone Gallery, New York1985-88Forum Gallery, New York1988-89Various exhibitions, Tuscany, Italy1990L'Grup Galleria, Carrara, Italy

1992-96 Galerie Carzaniga & Ueker, Basel, Switzerland (catalog, 1992)

1993 Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico1994-96Lo Studio Reggiani, Milan, Italy

1995 L'Grup Galleria

1996 Avignon en Provence, France1997-98Grounds For Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ. Stone sculpture exhibit.(catalog)

1998 ACA Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1999 Christian Chaneau Gallery, Santa Fe NM1999-2000Lumina Gallery, Taos NM

2000 Gallery Zip, Valencia NM

2000 Vanto Fine Arte, San Francisco CA

2000,2004-07 Santa Fe Community College Faculty Show, Santa Fe NM

2001 Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA

2001-03 Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA (Auberge du Soleil)

2004 State Capitol Building, Faculty Show, Santa Fe NM

2004-05 Winterowd Fine Art, Santa Fe NM

2006-09 Salon Margraff, Santa Fe NM

2009-11 Riva Yares, Santa Fe NM

2010 San Francisco Int'l. Art Fair I Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA

2010 One Painter, Estaban Vicente and Sculptor, Paul Bloch, Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto CA

2014 LA Int'l. Art Fair, Heather Gaudio Fine Art, New Canaan CT

2014 Solo Exhibit, Yares Art Projects, Santa Fe NM

2014 Black White and Red, Heather Gaudio Fine Art, New Canaan CT

Personal Exhibitions

1989 Galerie Carzaniga & Ueker, Basel, Switzerland 1991Galerie Carzaniga & Ueker (catalog)

1995 Galerie Carzaniga & Ueker2002Gallery Chiaroscuro, Santa Fe, NM

2007 Zane Bennett Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2014 Yares Art Projects, Santa Fe NM

Collaborations/video

Paul Bloch: "Any SurfaceInstallations

New Mexico Artist Achievement Purchase Award, Santa Fe Community CollegeColenco Power Engineering, LTD, Baden (Zurich), Switzerland

Reinhardt Druck, Basel

Wachendorf AG, Basel

Bogazzi Cargo Massa, ItalyWestin Hotel, New York, NY

Santa Fe Community College, Santa Fe, NM

George & Cynthia Mitchell Basic Sciences Research Bldg., Houston, TX

Teaching Positions

1981 Taught sculpture at Hayward State University, Hayward California.

1978-94 Frequent lecturer and demonstrator at then University of California at Berkeley and Santa Cruz and also San Francisco City College at Fort Mason.1988-95Taught sculpture at the Studio S.G.F., Carrara, Italy.

1999 Conducting stone sculpture workshops in Santa Fe.

2000-04 Teaching stone sculpture classes, Santa Fe Community College.