ABOUT THE ARTIST

GREGORY J. HACKENBERG, born in New Jersey, has resided in New Orleans since attending Tulane University, where he received a M. Arch in Architecture. He has practiced architecture in New Orleans since graduation and has been creating furniture and works of art in various media since the late 1980’s. He began working with the box assemblages in the 1990’s unifying a range of materials and skills from model making, wood working, sculpting and casting, combining a vocabulary of images and concepts with literary elements.

His work was selected and shown in the CAC group shows, Entergy Louisiana Open 1995, “Art by Architects” in 1997 and invited to display in “Ghost of Cornell” in 1998. He has recently returned to the production of work in the box medium.  His influences range from ancient and medieval art and architecture, Hieronymus Bosch, the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, the surrealism of Rene Magritte and Joseph Cornell, to the metaphysical poetry of Marvell and Donne, and architectural theory of Aldo Rossi and John Hejduk.

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IN HIS OWN WORDS

The works displayed represent a continuing series, each distinct in its content and imagery, but all defined by the common format of the containing box. The box serves as both the format and a component in the fusion of images and text into the complete work. Each element is informed and altered by its presence with-in the composition and derived from a personal stock of memories and associations. The final result stands, not as collection of dissimilar images or parts, nor as a reflection of something within the artist, but an autonomous object. The compositions may appear charged with meaning and associations, and resemblances in things apparently unlike, and even perplex the mind with speculations of philosophy. But any symbolic meaning or significance derived from the forms or text is found within the understanding and convictions of the viewer alone.