Marcia Wood’s sculptures don’t look anything like people - but she wanted you to connect with it like a person. There are four of her public art sculptures in Kalamazoo. Chances are you pass by them - maybe even every day.
There's one in front of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, one on the second floor of the Epic Center, one by Kalamazoo College's Light Fine Arts building, and one in front of the city's building on Stockbridge Avenue.
“I think people are very familiar with them but they might not associate them with her or they might not even associate them with one artist,” says Vicki Wright, former director of collections and exhibitions at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.
Here's a map of Marcia Wood's 16 public sculptures (Not all locations are exact):
Wright helped put together the KIA’s current exhibit on the late Kalamazoo artist Marcia Wood, who passed away in 2000. Wright says Wood was a pioneer. There weren’t a lot of female artists that were making large public sculptures in the 70s and 80s.
“She looked at other public sculpture and she felt that many times it was imposing and unapproachable and sterile almost, not very human," says Wright.
"I think Marcia, one of her goals was to create public sculpture that could be felt emotionally and that still had an attachment to humanity.”
Even though they’re abstract, Wood’s work clearly has human qualities. A lot of her sculptures have curves. Some of them stand on two legs. Wood wanted people to interact with her sculptures.
“She wanted people to walk around and look up and down and even like with Prospect at K-College particularly it has openings in it that you can look through," says Marcia Wood’s friend Dave Curl.
Curl helped Wright with the exhibit and is working on a book that catalogues Wood’s art.
“I knew her quite well," he says. "We were colleagues at Kalamazoo College at the same time. I was a photography prof and she was a sculpture prof and our studios were right across the hall from each other.”
Unlike many accomplished artists, Wood mostly stayed close to home. She got both her degrees in Michigan and taught at K-College for more than 30 years.
“Marcia was primarily a teacher and that’s probably why she stayed," says Curl. "Her base was Kalamazoo College, it was her alma mater. And Kalamazoo was basically her hometown where she grew up and she was a hometown girl who made good we could say.”
Obviously the KIA couldn’t bring most of Marcia Wood’s large sculptures inside. So the exhibit features the small models Wood used to create them, next to pictures of the real thing.
Curl says in works like “Procession” you can see how Wood was influenced by classic architecture. Abstract shapes sit on top of three orange posts - it almost looks like ancient Greek columns.
“Fragments, remains of architectural ruins - she was fascinated by those themes,” says Curl.
The exhibit also has some of Wood’s lesser-known works - like her female figurines. Vicki Wright says you can see how Wood took the idea of her figurine “Gemini” - which shows two reclining women - and made that concept more and more abstract, ultimately leading to her large metal sculpture “Prospect” at K-College:
“And when you look at the early piece and then look at the progressive pieces that were made after that. You can see - that what you might think of when you look at ‘Prospect’ as being total abstraction - you can see that it comes from the female figure.”
Curl says the Marcia Wood exhibit at the KIA is actually the first of two. Wood’s work will also be on display - and up for auction - at the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo in May.
