Carlsbad Sculpture Garden Exhibition Review
Pat Stein

Found and salvaged objects are featured in the tall, totemlike sculptures by internationally acclaimed artist Italo Scanga that are on display in the Carlsbad Sculpture Garden through the end of this year.

The new exhibition, "Moonlight Sonata: A Tribute to Italo Scanga," showcases seven towering metal "structures" by Scanga, the La Jolla-based artist who died last July.

"Scanga's work celebrates the human experience," said Karen McGuire, curator of the exhibit, and of the William D. Cannon Gallery at the Carlsbad Dove Library. "His sculptures transform everyday objects such as kitchen gadgets and hardware in objects of art."

Scanga's art has been showcased in museums and galleries around the world, including New York's Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art.

The works on exhibit in the sculpture garden, which is behind the Carlsbad Cultural Arts Office and across the street from the Cole Library at the corner of Elmwood Street and Laguna Drive, meld elements such as wrenches, gears, meat grinders, chains, cast iron keys, an old bottle capper, wire mesh, metal balls, etchings and animal figurines into intriguing sculptures that tickle the imagination and invite speculation.

"Moonlight Sonata," one of the last works Scanga created before he died, pays tribute to composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who wrote "Moonlight Sonata" as a musical paean to a young girl with whom he was deeply in love.

"It's one of many works demonstrating Scanga's love of classical music and fascination with the lives of the composers," McGuire said.

"Bruckner," a tribute to composer Anton Bruckner, features a brightly colored metal profile of the composer that seems to gaze proudly over the sculpture garden.

"Black Hook" evokes Scanga's native Calabria, Italy, with its combination of rustic farm tools, a hefty black hook that abstractly references construction sites and deep-sea fishing, and abstract images of the torchlike trees that dot the sunburnt hills of Calabria.

"Lion Head Fountain" calls up Catholic iconography and images from Scanga's childhood. "Tree With Bird," a sculpture featuring a wire mesh tree with a bird on top, is part of Scanga's "Trees for Elijah" series, which celebrates renewal and survival.

"The series is dedicated to Elijah, the biblical character who wandered in the desert on the brink of starvation and thirst when a bird flew down from the sky and brought him bread and water, thus saving his life," McGuire said.

Prancing horses, an eagle and a duck balance atop a high metal beam next to a spinning windmill that merrily catches light as it whirls in the breeze in the provocative "untitled" piece.

The homage to Scanga is one of many outdoor art displays that have been presented in the sculpture garden since it debuted in late 1998. The purpose of the garden is to provide the public with a place to rejuvenate, reflect and relax while surrounded by provocative art.

Admittance to the garden is free and it is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The entrance has a metal gate featuring images of cowboys astride bucking broncos that was created by metal artist Bruce Hobson especially for the sculpture garden.