“By using hands-on processes of coiling, fraying, twisting, wrapping, gluing and knotting, I transform industrial screening, wire, silicone and monofilament into organic constructions. My desire is to create works that appear to have grown into being. I love the natural world and am constantly inspired by its beauty and infinite varieties of form. This, in combination with my fears, quirks and joys, results in works that celebrate the wonder of it all.”

– Lanny Bergner

Lanny Bergner is a national/international mixed-media sculptor and installation, fiber and sculptural basketry artist who has been creating biomorphic and geometric constructions and installations out of metal mesh since 1983.The ethereal quality of Lanny Bergner’s work is in contrast to the mundane materials he uses to construct them. They are created using industrially woven bronze, brass, aluminum and stainless steel mesh, silicone, wire and glass frit. Using only a linesman pliers and cutting shear, he employs inventive yet simple joining techniques to transform mesh into semi-transparent chambers, vessels and angular constructions that play with light and overlapping patterns. The forms are made without the use of an armature and their structural integrity is determined by the method of construction. In his most recent works he employs pyrography techniques to burn patterning/drawings into stainless steel mesh.

The works reference vessel forms, architecture, plant biology, microorganisms, cosmology, undersea forms and the human body. They engage the viewer with glimpses into a world where nature and industry coalesce and they celebrate the mystery and wonder of it all.

Selected Public Collections

Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, Poland
Delaware Art Museum,Wilmington, DE
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle,WA
Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, Korea
Whatcom Museum, Bellingham,WA
Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA