Albert Dicruttalo has chosen the circle/sphere as his muse.  This most elemental of geometric shapes (think sun, moon, our own planet) lends itself to all manner of interpretation, intervention, intersections, and inter-relationships in the hands of a creative sculptor.

Dicruttalo works primarily in steel, although this exhibition of five pieces includes one in Corten steel (different, ask the sculptor at his March 13 Art Talk) and one cast in bronze. 

Steel spheres are carefully cut and welded into complex forms, then finished with a patina that permanently protects the metal from rusting.   In the case of cast bronze, a mold is made of the original form, molten bronze is poured (“cast”), and the sculpture is cleaned (“chased”) and finished with a protective patina.  Whether fabricated or cast, the process is technically complex, aesthetically challenging, and very hard work.

In Dicruttalo’s words, “ . . . I came across a “Living Rock Plant” (Lithops) at a nursery and became fascinated by its amazing geometry.  Intersecting spherical sections immediately became major elements in my visual vocabulary.”  (Lithops are a genus of succulent plants in the ice plant family, Aizoaceae, native to southern Africa.)

According to Bay Area art writer DeWitt Cheng, “(Dicruttalo) found, like the early abstractionists, that a nonfigurative approach could still embrace human concerns psychologically and poetically rather than literally.  What sets Dicruttalo’s works apart from obdurately mute, uninflected Donald Judd cubes, say, or Carl Andre metal tiles, are their beauty and complexity: they hold the eye and mind in a way that austere, rigid geometry does not.”

A graduate of Ithaca College, Albert Dicruttalo’s sculpture has been exhibited in Beijing, Shanghai, and Sonoma County museums; and he is represented in the Permanent Collection of the Oakland Museum of California.  Large works can be seen in Sunnyvale (Christensen Holdings), San Mateo (Essex Properties), San Jose (Santa Clara Valley Medical Center), Walnut Creek (Neiman Marcus), and Orinda (Orinda Plaza and City Hall).

Dicruttalo’s list of exhibitions (43) includes featured and group exhibitions throughout California plus France, China, and Chicago.