The Book Sculpture

Ilan Sandler has shown his sculptures, installations, and videos internationally and across Canada and has completed public art commissions in a number of cities in North America, as well as in Denmark and in Busan, South Korea. In 2000 he began experimenting with approaches and techniques to creating public art by combining industrial processes with emerging new media and rapid prototyping technology, and those experiments led him to found Sandler Studio as a research/production space for public projects. His major projects until 2005 included long- term temporary installations in unconventional sites: Arrest at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia; Pulse for the city of St. Louis; and Double Storey at the Toronto Sculpture Garden, as well as other mobile sensory and temporary projects in New York City, Philadelphia, and Connecticut. By 2006 his studio could support the production of large-scale pieces for national and international public art competitions. Although some of these public pieces have a textual or media component, in general his work references contemporary objects that are in common use and resonate across cultures, including books, wheels, sheaves of paper, tables, chairs, and water vessels. Recent permanent public artworks include A Departure in Lethbridge (2009), What’s Your Name? (2011) and The Vessel (2011) in Toronto. Current permanent public art commissions include Under the Helmet (2014) in Calgary and both Lace Up (2013) and The School Chair (2013) in Halifax. In 2012 his new series of Urban Artworks called Stolen Parts was premiered in Stockholm. He has received numerous awards, including grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Nova Scotia Department of Culture. Born in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 1971, Ilan Sandler and his family immigrated to Toronto six years later, in 1977. Sandler studied at the University of Toronto, where he received a B.Sc. in Physics, and at the Ontario College of Art and Design, where he completed an Honours Fine Arts certificate. In 2000 he was awarded an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He then went on to teach at the University of the Arts and Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, and most recently at NSCAD University where he held a SSHRC Research/Creation Fellowship until 2011. He is currently running Sandler Studio Inc. in Halifax, Nova Scotia.