LA gallery Tiwa Select presents Vince Skelly’s ‘After the Storm’ , a collection of furniture created using local treesIn January 2022, when a severe wind storm wound its way through Southern California, devastating 83mph winds blew over 300 trees in sculptor Vince Skelly’s hometown of Claremont. A small university town located just outside of Los Angeles, Claremont is locally known as The City of Trees – 91 of those fallen were found in the city’s parks alone.
In a bid to assist the city’s clean-up effort, and inspired to honour the legacy of the felled trees, Skelly began driving all over the town, earmarking timber that was suitable for use, which he gathered and brought to his studio.The results of that effort are now being showcased in Skelly’s first solo exhibition with Tiwa Select in Los Angeles.
‘I have a connection with all the trees that fell in the storm,’ he says. ‘As a kid, I climbed on them and used their shade to escape the summer heat. They provided oxygen and wildlife for our community. Lots of people in my hometown of Claremont share the same experiences. After the storm, it was an obvious choice to save the trees and create something special from them.
Each of Skelly’s objects venerably honour the origins of the tree that lived before it. The woods’ natural patina is retained in a poetic articulation of the past, present and future. Primitive and stoic in form, yet paired with intentional aesthetic gestures, each piece almost serves as a prompt to consider the passage of time.‘The first time Vince and I met, we immediately plunged into conversation about the spiritual meaning of wood and trees,’ says Tiwa Select’s Alex Tieghi-Walker.
better if they planted a few humdred.....