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. She received her BA in Art History from Purdue University and an MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts studying under artist Viola Frey, whose large-scale sculptures greatly influenced Weber’s work. Weber lives and works in San Pedro next to the Port of Los Angeles She was awarded a Pollock Krasner Grant in 2018. Residencies, including the American Academy in Rome; Oberpfalzer Kunslerhaus in Schwandorf, Germany; International School of Beijing and the De Young Museum in San Francisco, have provided her with opportunities to work in extraordinary settings and interact with diverse audiences. Weber’s work has recently been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Long Beach Museum of Art, Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles, Boise Art Museum, and Torrance Art Museum. Notable coverage includes the Los Angeles Times, Sculpture Magazine, Artillery, and online publications. Her cardboard sculptures have been cast in bronze and fiberglass for private clients and public art projects including projects in Phoenix, Denver, Sacramento, and Emeryville, California. Ann Weber is represented by Wönzimer Gallery in Los Angeles.

Born on Friday the 13th in Salem, Massachusetts, I started inventing creatures as soon as I was able to hold a crayon. Drawings that my mother saved from when I was only three years old reveal my obsession with the figure. The figures in these drawings show not only the distorted perceptions of a child, but my fascination with skulls, teeth, spirographic eyes, and invented body parts. My obsession with strange creatures continued throughout my youth. Monster models, dinosaurs, and horror movies on television occupied much of my time as well as drawing. I graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 1988 with a BFA in Painting. At the time I was making art that focused on surreal and psychological figurative painting and drawing. A bit later I added sculpture as part of my process, and my subjects continue to reveal a surreal bent in both structure and narrative. I have shown in galleries in Boston, Portland, Los Angeles and the Bay Area, as well as international venues in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Denmark. My work is included in collections at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the di Rosa Preserve in Napa, California, and the Artothèque de Caen in France. For most of my art career I have been exploring open-ended narratives in my work. Using mostly a portrait format, I tap into my subconscious to conjure loose metaphors and symbols and weave them into compelling characters. Some of these beings represent a kind of psychological self-portrait. Others represent people (or critters) I have encountered throughout my lifetime, friends, neighbors, and generally everyday folks. Often these characters are amalgamations. These beings are not specific portraits, more like fictional impressions of various people or animals. The character’s life-story is left open to interpretation, inviting the viewer into the story-telling process. The results are what appear to be damaged or vulnerable beings, but a second look reveals complex and sensitive spirits, more like enthusiastic upstarts, rather than rejects or troublemakers.