You’ve seen his work. It’s the low row of water sprite-like wings on the bridge railing where Main Street spans the Genesee. It’s the upright portal crossed by a see-saw on The Strong National Museum of Play’s grounds, the bouquet of sylvan fronds and weightless festoons in “Soliloquy” on the Memorial Art Gallery’s campus and the golden-spired gates in the MAG atrium. It’s the 110-ton steel and bronze behemoth dubbed “Sentinel” that, at 73-feet tall, dwarfs many of the surrounding buildings at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Albert Paley’s art is part of the living fabric of Rochester, and beyond.
“Everybody thinks of steel as firm and structural,” said Paley. “But when heated and formed, it can become very lyrical. When an individual sees organic forms built out of hard and rigid steel, they are experiencing motion and life — they see one thing and experience something else.”…