Opened last weekend and currently on view at Tanja Grunert Salon at the Princess Beatrix House in Hudson is a show of works by the late sculptor and fabric installation artist Lee Musselman (1956-2013).
“Being an artist and a gay white male, my lifestyle is, at times, on the edge,” said Musselman, who was also an actor (1991’s The Brides of Johnny in Monsterland), in a 2011 artist statement. “My art comes from my own experience. It helps me heal situations in my life, to get past them and to work through them and, if lucky, help other people move through their own situations. I keep art supplies and found objects and ideas for many years before using them, carrying them wherever I go…”
Musselman’s surreal outsider assemblages perhaps recall the influence of Marcel Duchamp and the Dadaists. “The rawness of old materials—metal, bones, feathers, snakeskin, baby dolls, baby doll heads, fabric, boxes of buttons, tools—just having them around feeds the artistic soul,” said the artist. “I am a storyteller with my art. If by chance whatever I make is sad to the viewer’s eye, it is not my goal of creation. My goal is to offer hope and honor the possibility of change in life…We’re all teachers for each other.”
The exhibit of works by Lee Musselman is now on view at Tanja Grunert Salon at the Princess Beatrix House in Hudson. See website for information.
This article appears in June 2022.
