Beacon artist sculpts twists and turns
John Procario, 34, is the modest designer of “sculptural luminaries” — pretzel-like wood creations that double as lighting fixtures.
Private clients come calling from all over the world; one work now under construction is headed to Indonesia. Procario is represented by Todd Merrill Studio in Manhattan and through Monday (Nov. 11), his work will be displayed at the Salon Art + Design show at the Park Avenue Armory.
His woodwork is “intended to look seamless,” he says. “The flex creates a closed loop that guides the eyes and lets them get lost looking around. It’s easy to find new ways to view it.”
At his 5,000-square-foot Beacon studio, Procario’s sculptures stand on the floor or hang from ceilings and walls. A child can hold his smaller works; others take four people to move around.
Procario and three assistants laminate and manipulate strips of ash, poplar, white oak and other species while rap, rock, funk, jazz, Latin jazz and whatever else they fancy blasts through a speaker outfitted with lights that change color every few bars.
To roughly replicate his design, Procario relies on templates created by snaking pieces over, around and through wooden posts that are bolted onto waist-high benches in pre-arranged configurations.
Procario also uses dumbbells to weigh down strategic portions that keep the shape quasi-uniform. No two items are the same because so much hand-sculpting goes into each finished product. Replicating the bending step precisely is nearly impossible, even with a machine.
The raw material is thin strips of wood in various sizes and widths laminated with epoxy applied by tiny paint rollers. The slats are enclosed in a fitted plastic container with a nozzle for the VacuPress machine to suck out all the oxygen, which applies pressure to sandwich the plies that dry for 24 hours.
The crew bends the bagged slats around the posts and adds layers of laminate to the works, some of which resemble a huge knot in suspended animation that will never be pulled tight.
Assistants Dylan Cronk and John Menzie help with bending, glue work and maneuvering the studio’s 1,000 or so clamps. Sal Yanittelli, who previously worked at his uncle’s wine store in Cold Spring, manages the sander and handles some of the other shaping duties.
Once the clamps are removed, the team rounds the rough edges with an angle grinder. Then, the sanding begins, which brings out the wood’s grain. After staining, a strip of LED lights is affixed to the underside and covered with custom-fit cotton linens.
In the workshop, just about everything is in its place. “That’s for creativity’s sake,” Procario explains. “When inspiration hits, you don’t want to have to look for something.”
The sculptor, who grew up in Cold Spring and moved to Beacon eight years ago, began bending wood in 2012, “but I had no representation and selling myself took up too much time.” He joined Todd Merrill Studio in 2016.
Beyond the artsy lamps that are his calling card, Procario designed a stool, bench and lounge chair. When the gallery asked him to make sculptural sofas, he figured another functional work would be fun. The studio constructs the honeycomb frame and sends it to a custom upholsterer. One white creation looks like a snail, another an abstract sports car.
“I like that people interact with my work,” Procario says. “It’s intimate when someone flips the light switch and maybe looks up to linger on the design. But it’s even more so when someone sits on your art.”
For more, see johnprocario.com. The Salon Art + Design show will be open from 3 to 8 p.m. today (Nov. 8), 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday at the Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Ave. between 66th and 67th streets in New York City. See thesalonny.com for tickets, which are $35 or $10 for students.
