Michael Pavlovsky
For Michael Pavlovsky, the quest to create sculpture is clear: “Artists have an innate need to express and to create. We are fortunate when life allows us to pursue this calling. Sculpture is a lifelong passion for me. I would not want to do anything else. It is the most compelling and beautiful form of artistic expression.”
Born in Dover, Delaware, in 1957, Michael began this lifelong pursuit as a student of painting and sculpture under Patrick Carter in 1972. Having earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture from Texas A & M University in 1982, he was awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Texas in 1990.
Michael’s work has been included in over ninety juried and invitational exhibitions. He is currently represented by Galerie Kornye West. His most notable work was a commission to create a sculpture to serve as the central metaphor for the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Movement to Overcome was in place for the opening of that museum in 1991, constructed on the site of the Lorraine Motel, site of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.
In 1993, Michael was commissioned by the City of Dallas to create a site-specific sculpture for the Middle Five-Mile Creek Art Project for which he received an Urban Design Award from the City of Dallas Urban Design Committee. 1995 brought a commission from the American Republic Insurance Company to create a bronze column for their Art Park, commemorating the company’s commitment to civil rights. This commission, Column of Change, now resides within the Principal Riverwalk in Des Moines. In 1999, he was commissioned by the City of Grapevine, Texas, to create a veterans memorial, consisting of two large bronze sculptures. Situated on the grounds of the historic Grapevine train depot, Coming Home and its companion Military Arch--comprised of meaningful historic imagery and text--was dedicated on Memorial Day, 2000.
In 2001, the artist completed a commission for the Hall Financial Group in Frisco, Texas, three large bronze wall panels entitled Perseverance and Compassion, as well as bronze representations of the 14 Stations of the Cross commissioned by St. John’s Episcopal Church, Fort Worth, Texas. Further, in June of that year, the Fort Worth Botanic Garden unveiled a large bronze by Michael, Birth of Love, commissioned by the Fort Worth Garden Club.
In the spring of 2002, a monumental bronze likeness of Julius Schepps, a memorial commissioned by the City of Dallas and the Schepps family, was unveiled in downtown Dallas in the Julius Schepps Memorial Park. The fall of 2003 saw the dedication in Denver of Michael’s Lehadlik ner, a life-size bronze representation of a woman performing the candle blessing at the Sabbath hour. This work was commissioned by the Hebrew Educational Alliance of Denver, Colorado. 2007 brought the completion of a work for Samaritan House in Fort Worth entitled Hope Renewed, and in late 2008, Living Water, a life-sized Christ figure in bronze commissioned by Fort Worth’s University Christian Church, was installed.
Early in 2009, having completed a detailed restoration of two ceramic Chinese lions from the fountain at Chandor Gardens in Weatherford, Michael began work for casting the lions in bronze. The ceramic lions will be on permanent display within the estate at Chandor, while the bronze casts will become the new fountain. Also completed in 2009 is The Three Muses of Frisco. This work was created for Frisco’s Preston Road/Phase II public art project, and is a 3-piece monumental work in bronze placed in front of the Frisco city hall. Additionally, the artist created a life-sized figurative work entitled Promise Fulfilled to be placed in front of the historic facility of the downtown YWCA in Fort Worth.
In 2010 Michael completed Prairie Wind, a Fort Worth Public Art commission for C.P. Hadley Park in Fort Worth, as well as two works for Baylor All Saints Hospital in Fort Worth entitled Dance of Life, and Life's Special Moments. He has also created a suite of 24 permanent metal light pole banners as part of the revitalization of East Lancaster Street in Fort Worth. Each banner is a unique design, and recalls an aspect of the local street vernacular. Additionally, he was commissioned by the Friends of Historic Nacogdoches, Inc. to create a life-size monument of the architect, Dietrich Rulfs which is installed. In October 2012 Michael completed Flamma Libertratis, a large site-specific sculpture for the Fairview Veterans' Park in Fairview, Texas. In 2014 the artist sculpted a life-sized sculpture of a fire fighter in full "turnout" gear for Fire Station Number 8 in Frisco, Texas. He also created a sculpture for the Moncrief Cancer Institute being in Fort Worth. The sculpture is symbolic in design, and is placed in their healing courtyard.
