Micro Metros: Abstract City Models Carved from Wooden Scraps
With the eye of an architect and hand of street artist, James McNabb blends urban inspiration with a fast-paced creation process to make these amazing sketch-like sculptures of all sizes.
His latest series, dubbed Metros (opening at the Robert Fontaine Gallery), follows in the footsteps of Long Nights, Big City Lights, taking exotic and beautiful wood offcuts then chipping, chiseling,, cutting and sawing them into buildings and towers to form abstract skylines.
The results reflect a combination of architectural and artistic sensibilities, seeming much like pieces of furniture or sculpture but intentionally crafted without the same slow detail-oriented care we normally associate with those arts.
Seen at a distance, the structural details seem to blur into skylines – up close, like trees in a forest, individual buildings take shape, highlighting differences in form, color, grain and materiality.
