Bates Wilson is an actor who became a sculptor when he started making art to fill his Brooklyn loft. An American flag made from corrugated metal and aluminum was his first piece; since then Bates has used recycled metal and found objects to create airplanes that seem to transform into dolphins swimming in the ocean, strangely beautiful winged icons made from old car parts, old machines, and highway signs, and many more creations that seem simultaneously old and new, organic and inorganic, retro and science fiction. As Bates himself says, “The idea is to make something new out of things old; to take that which is discarded and renew the life that it once had. Art should allow for a continuous evolution of materials and ideas”.

See his new monumental sculpture Mara.