About The Artist

Alan Papscun was born in Queens, New York, to parents who were good with their hands. What they couldn’t afford to buy they made or repaired; with his father they photographed, processed, printed, filmed and animated; they knitted, soldered, sewed; they built an entire house, with wooden circular stairs! What originally possessed Alan to major in business?! though he quickly found his way back to creativity and his love of form through the business of footwear and ultimately to the design of shoes … and then some architecture … and finally art school.
The human form has directed Alan for many decades, from his initial focus as a shoe designer for a Massachusetts footwear manufacturer, he was awarded the American Designer Award by the Leather Industries of America in 1978. As a student of mostly classical figure sculpture at Massachusetts College of Art (BFA) he was honored with the 1989 Pace Gallery Award. Alan then moved to more abstracted forms, graduating with an MFA from Alfred University. In the Spring of 2022 two of his new Lead Shoe series were accepted into the Marblehead Arts Association Variations 2022 Exhibition, one being awarded third place in the 3-D category. In addition, seven of the Lead Shoe series have been included in two other recent juried exhibitions.
As the result of a pronounced congenital deformity of his left foot and leg, Alan views the human form from an outlying place. Every piece of sculpture is some form of self-portrait. He sculpts body ego, as it was formed, molded, perceived, internalized … and as it evolved. He sculpts spirit, emotional states, sensuality, primal forces. His work references wholeness, vulnerability, deformation, fragmentation, so as to reflect what it is to be imperfectly human, as we all ultimately exist.
Alan lives and works in Stockbridge and the beautiful Berkshires of western Massachusetts, surrounded by his sculpted gardens and woods.

Education

Master of Fine Arts, Sculpture Alfred University, Alfred, NY
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Sculpture Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
Bachelor of Science, Marketing University of Dayton, Dayton, OH

MAJOR COMMISSIONS AND EXHIBITIONS

2022 Berkshire Arts Association, Pittsfield MA - BAA Biennial
- RE:FRESH 2022 – Group show
2022 ArtWeek Berkshires, MA – Sept. 15 - 25 – Open Studio
2022 New Marlborough Meeting House Gallery, New Marlborough MA
- As the Crow Flies - Group
2022 Marblehead Arts Association, Marblehead MA – Variations2022 – Group show
2021 St. Francis Gallery, South Lee MA – Group show
2021 ArtWeek Berkshires, MA – Sept. 16 – 26 – Open Studio
2019 Sandisfield Art Center, Sandisfield MA
2019 Guild of Berkshire Artists Tour – July/August/September/October
2019 Kimball Farms, Lenox MA – April through September – Group shows
2019 Gallery 35, Great Barrington MA – Group Show
2016 Art Ability, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Malvern PA - Group show
2012 The Row, New York City NY – pedestal design
2012 Good Purpose Gallery, Lee, MA – Group show
2007 Artwell Gallery, Torrington, CT - Group Show
2005 Front Street Gallery, Troy, NY - Group show
2000 Art.come2, Millerton, NY - Group Show
1997 Egremont House, Egremont MA
1993 Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Boston, MA - Group Show
1991 Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY - MFA Thesis Show
1989 Shawmut Bank, Boston, MA - Group Show
1989 Lowell Winter Festival, Lowell, MA - Ice
1988 First Night 1989, Boston, MA - Ice
1988 Marblehead Christmas Festival, Marblehead, MA - Ice
1988 Lowell Winter Festival, Lowell, MA - Ice
1987 Marblehead Christmas Festival, Marblehead, MA - Ice
1987 Lowell Winter Festival, Lowell, MA - Ice
1987 Cyclorama-Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA - Installation
1986 First Night 1987, Boston, MA - Ice (Collaboration)
1986 State Transportation Building, Boston, MA - Mixed Media Installation
- (Collaboration)
1982 Holliston House I, Holliston MA
1980 Bicentennial, Milford, MA - Float