Born: 1950, Jackson, Michigan
Studied: Purdue University, B.A. Art History, California College of Arts and Crafts, M.F.A., studying with Viola Fay
Currently lives and works in Los Angeles

Ann Weber makes monumental sculpture out of found cardboard boxes. Her interest is in expanding the possibilities of making beauty from a common and mundane material. Weber’s sculptures have a mystery or double meaning to them. Neither entirely representational nor abstract, but something in between, she wants the viewers to bring their own associations to the artwork.

Weber started working in cardboard in 1991 because she wanted to eliminate the cumbersome process of clay and make monumental forms that were light weight. Frank Gehry’s cardboard furniture was her initial inspiration. My abstract sculptures read as metaphors for life experiences such as the balancing acts that define our lives. “How far can I build this before it collapses?” is a question on her mind as she works. Ultimately her interest is in expanding the possibilities of making beauty from a common and mundane material.

One of the unique qualities of my art is the psychological component. Neither entirely representational nor abstract, but something in between, I want the viewers to bring their own associations to the artwork. Working with a palette of simple forms: cylinders and circles, the sculptures are symbolic of male and female forms and the natural world.

Ann Weber’s large sculptures made from woven strips of cardboard synthesize ancient and modern, craft and high art. The biomorhic gourd shapes suggest traditional basketry, but also, with their human size, their open grids and peepholes, pre-industrial coffins or cages, and their probing necks ( smokestacks or chimneys), they’re imbued with life and as anthropomorphic as Giorgio Morandi’s bottles. –Dewitt Cheng

Weber’s work is included in numerous private and public collections internationally including: the American Embassy in Swaziland, Africa; International Oberpfalzer Kunstlerhaus, Schwandorf, Germany; International School of Beijing, Beijing, China, Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California, Seattle Arts commission, Seattle Public Utilities Renaissance Works Project