The Delaware Art Museum celebrates the career of Stan Smokler with this Distinguished Artist exhibition. His celebrated found object, steel sculptures continue the trajectory of modernist abstraction. Smokler completed his master of fine arts degree at Pratt Institute in 1975, and he continued to work in New York on his own sculpture as well as in art conservation and interior design before relocating to the Brandywine Valley in 1999. Smokler taught at the Delaware College of Art and Design from 1998 until his retirement in 2016, served on the Board of the Delaware Contemporary, and participated in Delaware Division of the Arts’ Artist in Residence program from 1996–1999. In addition to participating in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast United States, Smokler established his Marshall Bridge Workshop in 2004. The Workshop is an immersive training opportunity for artists of all levels interested in working with welded steel, and Smokler has been praised for his supportive approach to teaching. Stan Smokler: Steel in Flux includes work from the late 1970s through 2020 along with several of the artist’s charcoal and pastel drawings of his completed sculptures. Examples of Smokler’s largescale work will be on view in the Museum’s Copeland Sculpture Garden with an extended showing through October 30, 2022.
The Distinguished Artist Series is a celebration of those artists who have impacted contemporary art in the greater Brandywine Valley through their artistic practices, teaching, and support of the community and its various institutions. Through unique exhibitions, this series surveys artists’ legacies as they relate to local, national, and international trends. With his commitment to exploring the possibilities of steel and mentoring students through his numerous Marshall Bridge workshops and years at the Delaware College of Art and Design, Smokler has guided the trajectory of contemporary abstract sculpture.
