Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art (The Square) will host an Exhibition Reception and Artist Talk with Helena artist, Chip Clawson. The program will be held on Friday, April 4th from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. The program is at 1400 1st Ave North, Great Falls, Montana, and is free and open to the public.
Clawson’s exhibition, Figments of the Imagination, features large-scale sculptures in two galleries at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art for the public to explore. Visitors at the event will hear from the artist about his life and artistic career. A full-color brochure publication featuring a new essay from the artist will also be available for visitors to take home. Those seeking more information can contact Nicole Maria Evans, Interim Executive Director/Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs at nicole@the-square.org or by calling (406) 727-8255.
About Chip Clawson: Figments of the Imagination:
Figments of the Imagination is an innovative artist installation and large-scale environment created by Helena artist Chip Clawson. The work, created between 2021 and 2025, embodies a sense of freedom and adventure as defined by his distinctive style, utilizing bold sculptural organic shapes and textures combined with mesmerizing, intense colors. Clawson is a sculptor known for larger scale concrete and ceramic public and private art installations. More recently, his work has shifted to using digital technology to create large lightweight sculptures and installations that show movement and are joyful, colorful and positive. His work is intended to engage and captivate the imagination of the viewer.
“My work starts with clay sculpture or found objects that I scan with a laser scanner,” said Clawson. “The digital file is taken into a modeling program and manipulated in many ways. The file is then taken to another program to produce the instructions for the machine and the material of choice. I feel that it is important to create environments that are positive, bright, joyful and engaging to the viewer.
“Digital technology provides the opportunity to change a base sculpture by distortion, segmenting, reconstruction, bending, changing scale and producing sculpture in a variety of materials with a variety of digitally controlled machines. While my current sculptures are produced on machines, they are visually organic and do not look like they were made by machines. My processes are not common in the art world at this time,” continued Clawson.
“I am often asked the difficult question of how long it takes to make my sculptures. My best answer is fifty years. Seriously. My skills at creating objects have accumulated over the decades. The imagery is an ever-evolving process, often over years as I increase my knowledge of how to physically build sculptures. Some of the less complicated building processes can be accomplished in a few days. The large or more complicated sculptures can easily take months and even years (for example, my concrete and ceramic sculptures).
“The natural world is the main source of inspiration for my work. As I have spent time enjoying the outdoors, the forms accumulate in my brain and come in a new form as I fulfill my need to create. Sculpture gives me the opportunity to share my visions with others,” said Clawson.
This exhibition is curated by Nicole Maria Evans, Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. Exhibitions at the museum are supported in part by the Montana Arts Council, a state agency funded by the State of Montana, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We are funded in part by coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana’s cultural and aesthetic projects trust fund. Additional funding is provided by museum members and the citizens of Cascade County, Davidson Family Foundation, D.A. Davidson, Montana Credit Union, Hotel Arvon, First Interstate Bank, Gordon McConnell, an anonymous donor, Kelly’s Signs & Design, and Fire Artisan Pizza.
About Chip Clawson:
Chip Clawson is a sculptor in Helena, MT who is renowned for his use of digital technology to create sculptures with painted surfaces, as well as public art and large-scale architectural installations using ceramic materials and fabric-formed concrete.
Clawson came to Helena and the Archie Bray Foundation in 1977 to be the Clay Business Manager. Before retiring for the third and final time in 2017, he served several additional positions, including the Owner’s Representative for the David and Ann Shaner Resident Artist Center and the Education Building and Facilities Manager, for a total of 36 years.
Clawson’s portfolio consists of mainly public art and sight specific sculptures. Throughout his career, he has experimented with many different materials and mediums to fulfill his creative needs, including working with several temperature ranges, encaustic, cast iron, bronze, and most recently paint. He started with clay 50 years ago, left ceramics for two decades, and eventually came back to the medium in the 1990s and was soon working on an architectural scale.
For more than a decade, Clawson has been working with fabric formed concrete with painted, mosaic, and other ceramic attachments as surface treatments. His major work in ceramics and concrete tends to be large and built in place. His most recent work has taken him into digital technology and lightweight material, as he continues to search for mediums to express his creativity and connect with a wider audience with work that can be shown in more venues.
