From a pack rat's treasure trove of machine bits, motors, fixtures, lampshades and a small army of collectibles, Gerberich spins his clanky contraptions together. This alchemist of odds and ends picks through materials searching for possibilities, a crank for this, a gear for that and a plastic dinosaur for this. Buzz, whir, squeak, hum, whirl, clank, chug, flash and blink. Was that a flying Moose? He grabs the motions and notions and thingamabobs in an elaborate call and response dialogue of mechanical memories. He re-imagines discarded laborsaving devices into fantastical sculptures. You push a button, or spin a crank and these marvels come alive.

After graduating from the University of Northern Iowa in the early 1980's with a BFA in photography, Stephen Gerberich moved to SoHo, NYC. Here Gerberich's photography soon began to transform into large-scale storefront window installations (often filled with elements that once might have been simply contained within the parameters of one of his photographs).  But once they broke loose into wild, expanded environs, there was no putting them back into small spaces or quiet still lifes.  His self-taught mechanical skills began here.  Gerberich's studio, itself a piece of art, is an amazing place chock full of the oddest collection of resources, as if some preposterous mechanical genie escaped the bottle and went for a whirl through Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe. 

Gerberich is a problem solver who uses basic mechanical systems to realize solutions. His evolved gadgetry has turned into a profession. In typical elliptical thinking, he cites Paul Klee's title "Twittering Machine" as more inspiring than the painting. He also looks at the work of Cornell, Rauschenberg, Duchamp, Tinguely, Kienholz, and his late brother, Tim Gerberich.   

This is analog work for the digital age.

Come on in.  Feel the magic.