Concrete structure and Skidmore spirit: Alum's artistic journey and proud Skidmore legacy
Donna Conklin King ’85, a contemporary artist known for her concrete sculptures, was recently featured on , a new Smithsonian Channel series that showcases the work of dancers, actors, sculptors, photographers, musicians, and other artists. King, whose art explores the relationship between nature, architecture, and the ruins of civilization, often casts her highly textured concrete forms out of single-use food containers, tin ceiling tiles, and fabric molds.
ArtNation spotlighted her 15-panel outdoor sky sculpture in Episode 3, “Earthworks,”
which highlights artists inspired by Earth’s natural beauty. Each panel of the 8.5-foot-by-20.5-foot
sculpture was cast from the backside of a tin ceiling tile to create the texture of
a ceiling. The panels, which purposely appear scarred in many places, are mounted
on black wooden posts in Summit, N.J., across from the train station.
“Since the piece was made during the pandemic lockdown, I was thinking about how everyone was staring at their ceilings, and that the ceiling was our new sky,” says King, whose art is deeply influenced by kintsugi, a centuries-old Japanese art that celebrates an object's unique history by emphasizing its imperfections. “Even when things seem to be falling apart, there is actually space being created for new growth.”
King credits her childhood spent in the woods building forts from scavenged wood as her first inspiration for working with sculpture. She learned about clay and stone carving from local artists before studying lithography and sculpture at Skidmore. After an apprenticeship at the New Jersey-based Seward Johnson Atelier Fine Art Foundry, where she learned welding and lost-wax bronze casting, she attained her MFA in sculpture at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of Art.
King is making the trip back for Commencement to see her son, economics and music major Warren King ’23, walk across the stage. “I love Skidmore and am very proud to be an alumnus,” she says. “I’m excited and proud to see my son graduate. There will be a lot of happy tears!”
Two other that King created are on display at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum in New Jersey through the end of May.
