Artist: Be Gardner
Nationality: American
Date of Birth/Death: 1950
Medium: Marble, Stone, Stone Base
Measurement: 80″ H x 20" W x 20' D
Year Donated: 2014
Be Gardiner was born 1950 in Washington, D.C. He received a BA from UNC-Chapel Hill and exhibited in the Center of the Earth Gallery in Charlotte, the Gray Gallery at East Carolina University, the Ewing Gallery at the University of Tennesse-Knoxville, Somerhill Gallery in Chapel Hill, the Greenhill Center for NC Art, UNC-Asheville, the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach, and the Ergo Sum Gallery in Augusta. His work has also been exhibited at Universities of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Appalachian State University, Western Carolina University, Lynchburg College, The University of Notre Dame, Radford University, and the University of Tennesse-Knoxville. He received the Rosen Prize from Jack Burnham and first prize at the Bryan Invitational Exhibition from Helaine Posner.
Gardiner's ideas are contemporary, but his techniques and imagery are classical. He studied extensively in Carrara, Italy under the masters of stone carving in the heart of the best, most pristine white marble quarries in the world. This training and experience gave him the complete technical abilities and skills to convey the images that he desired to portray. Carving was the way that he could see things and the process drew him into each project. His most important goal is that his work be "transcendent" and evoke a strong emotional response rather than a mere academic acknowledgement that is just some kind of formalistic investigation into texture and shape. He developed his torso forms to give the impression of being out on an archeological dig, discovering a figure, dusting it off and seeing that it is somewhat broken.
Gardiner put down his chisel in 1995, moved from his Western North Carolina home to the Puget Sound in Washington, and became a Zen monk, changing his name to Teitaku Isaac Gardiner (he said “Be” was actually a childhood nickname).
