Today I decided to catch up with the recent and “seriously silly” creations of California based artist Nemo Gould. Gould has been creating his odd creatures, robots, and kinetic sculptures from old vacuum cleaners, kitchen pots, gasoline pumps, and whatever else he can get his hands on, for more than 20 years. His work has been featured frequently in national media and is shown in Galleries and Museums throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Of his work, Gould says, “What makes a thing fascinating is to not completely know it.  It is this gap in our understanding that the imagination uses as its canvass.  Salvaged material is an ideal medium to make use of this principle.  A “found object” is just a familiar thing seen as though for the first time.  By maintaining this unbiased view of the objects I collect, I am able to create forms and figures that fascinate and surprise.  These sculptures are both familiar and new.  Incorporating consumer detritus with my own symbology, they are the synthesis of our manufactured landscape and our tentative place within it– strong and frail at the same time.”

Nemo is currently exhibiting at SF20 in San Francisco (September 16 – 19, 2010) and at the Visions of Paradise Exhibition at the Sonoma Valley Museum in Sonoma, California (August. 21 – November 7, 2010).

To see more of Nemo Gould’s work and to watch video of his sculptures in action, visit Nemomatic.com.

Recently, I stumbled upon the wonderfully amusing found object and kinetic sculptures of Nemo Gould. Born to artist parents in 1975, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gould has been creating his odd creatures and abstract sculptures from old vacuum cleaners, kitchen pots, gasoline pumps, and whatever else he can get his hands on, for more than 20 years.

Named after the protagonist in Windsor McKay’s comic strip “Little Nemo in Slumberland,” Gould’s work has fittingly evolved to reflect the images and mythology of comic books and Science Fiction. Equally as fitting is his tendency  to collect and dismantle anything with moving parts. 

Gould  has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute and a Masters of Fine Arts from U.C. Berkeley. After graduation,  he quickly threw himself into the pursuit of his childhood dreams.  “My work appeals to the 7-year-old boy mind, because I still have one… I take silly very seriously.”

Over his career, Gould has produced a prolific body of work that attempts to reconcile the innocent wonder of youth with the dull complexity of the adult experience.  “Most adults are dangerously lacking in wonder.  As we age and learn more of the answers to life’s mysteries, I think we lose part of what keeps us alive.  When I am working, I am always trying to make things that can produce a child like response from a jaded adult—it’s a matter of life and death!”

Gould has exhibited in numerous galleries and museums across the United States and abroad and has been featured often in national media, including Wired and Juxtapoz magazines.

To see more of Nemo Gould’s work and to watch video of his sculptures in action, visit Nemomatic.com.