Scaled Up: Sculpture by Marcia Wood

More than 50 sculptures, maquettes, paintings and images of large-scale public commissions will provide a glimpse of 50 years of art by the Kalamazoo artist and educator.

Always focused on human-scale experiences, Marcia Wood (1933-2000) sculpted visual metaphors for personal relationships to community, nature, and architecture. Among Kalamazoo’s most accomplished sculptors, Wood sought an alternative to the intimidating, minimalist sculpture that she saw dominating public plazas and parks in the latter part of the 20th century. Her public art encouraged public interaction, rewarding not only distant views but also inviting intimate, close-up examination. In large and small scale, her work distilled fundamental human relationships and basic elements of nature into sculptural forms.

Marcia Wood began her studies in art at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts while in junior high school. She received her BA in art from Kalamazoo College, and an MFA in painting from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She taught at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and at Hope College before returning to Kalamazoo to head the sculpture program at Kalamazoo College.

Her work in sculpture encompassed many materials (bronze, painted steel, aluminum) and subject matters (figurative, architectural, abstraction). Later in her career, she achieved recognition for her large-scale public commissions in cities including Detroit, Traverse City, St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and LaPorte, Indiana.