Art Cabrera has been producing sculpture for the past several decades mostly through the mediums of found object, assembly, and collage. Art has a great eye for discovery of unique and stimulating objects of nature and great manmade tools and handiworks. He chooses elements that have strong emotional content. Art is often working with much needed important tools to construct and maintain our living and work spaces, such as powerful hammers and drills and machine parts. He also works with objects that have long held highly charged spiritual or social and family meanings. Art uses seemingly simple objects that are full of immeasurable concepts. In his work, small scraps of barbed wire have tremendous meaning beyond being just strands of old metal. Adding barbed wire makes us think and feel many things. To this he adds rosaries, wheels, bike parts, toys or photos he has taken at anti Klan protests. Soft fake furs, goofy nostalgic plastic gag items and hard sharp steel circular saw blades create combinations that make you think. He spends a lot of time in nature and his love of the beauty is also a big part of his work.
Cabrera has been organizing Art by Construction Workers exhibits for over a decade. He does a great job showing highly skilled carpenters and electricians producing beautiful portraits, urban nature landscapes, and stained glass all with excellent craftsmanship. Art has a long history of organizing ways to help his neighbors - mentoring young people in construction trades, being a founding member of the Park Slope Food Coop or developing Camp Friendship. The front of his house is well known and all kinds of people come by just to see the latest displays of plants, sculpture and old wood. A lot of people have grown to respect that an artist lives here.
