Put Yourself in the Picture (Roberto Lugo, 2022, Grounds for Sculpture) is a 20-plus-foot tall, oversized riff on Philly artist Roberto Lugo’s ceramic pieces. Photo: Arron Andrews
Step into the larger-than-life world of Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, where you can take a bull by the horns, nosh in a three-dimensional re-creation of Monet’s garden, or snap a selfie inside a 27-foot urn, vibrantly rendered in a patchwork of color. Here, imagination is on display, and you can’t believe your own eyes. This is Seward Johnson’s world.
“He’s not only the founder,” says Lynn DeClemente Losavio, chief legacy officer at the Seward Johnson Atelier, which is in part the wellspring of the sculpture park. “He is the creative architect around the ideas that were infused into Grounds for Sculpture.” Johnson, a New Jersey native who died in 2020, was zealously dedicated to his vision for learning, teaching and, most of all, expanding art.
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Initially a painter, Johnson left the two-dimensional world of painting at age 38, after his wife enrolled him in sculpting classes, embarking on a journey of artistic discovery that became a vocation, with a calling to educate and share. Grounds for Sculpture, opened in 1992 (and No. 1 on NJM‘s list of 52 things you must do in New Jersey), is the public outgrowth of Johnson’s passion. But behind the curtain of the stunning 42-acre park, peppered with nearly 300 sculptures set among pristine landscaping, lie two rare and remarkable workshops, where wide-ranging and challenging ideas take wing.
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After casting his first piece—a life-size girl created in dense foam, then finished by a foundry in stainless steel—Johnson entered the work in a competition. He took home best in show and was eager for more, returning to the foundry to learn the process. “This was, like, 1969,” explains DeClemente Losavio. “The foundry owner was like, ‘No, that’s not how we do this.’” But Johnson was hooked—and undaunted. He sought out artists and craftspeople to teach him, along the way perfecting his skills and creating a community of like-minded artists.
To house his new operation, in the 1980s Johnson acquired the abandoned New Jersey State Fairgrounds, with four oversized warehouses—ideal space for making sculptures that sometimes soar over 20 feet high. Johnson’s atelier became a hub for artists to learn, collaborate, teach each other and make art. “Prolific artists like Magdalena Abakanowicz and Beverly Pepper were coming in and working in the studio,” says DeClemente Losavio. “Apprentices, students and masters of the craft were all working there. It was an amazing creative space.”
Return Visit by Seward Johnson, 1991, the Seward Johnson Atelier. Photo: Arron Andrews
Inevitably, this inspired hive produced a lot of sculptures. “The artists had started putting their work in the backyard behind the building. They were pretty big pieces, so to find a place to house or display them was really difficult,” DeClemente Losavio says. During a lunchtime conversation between Johnson and a couple of other artists, the notion of turning the backyard into a showplace solidified, and the odyssey of this wonderland took shape.
Today, this workshop lives on as the Seward Johnson Atelier, with a separate companion arm dedicated to new technologies, the Digital Atelier. The staff of artists, draftspeople, digital designers, fabricators, metalworkers, painters and more(many of whom multitask in these mediums), have rendered 25–30 percent of the works in the park.
A tour through the atelier is wondersome with sights of various projects in different stages of completion. Beyond the swinging doors that separate the atelier’s front-office space and the workshop areas, a craftsperson is diligently hand sanding a huge block of urethane foam that is partially sculpted into what looks like the beginnings of the hull of a boat, or even a not-quite-finished arm for some humongous being. Shelves hold curious pieces like basketball-sized, neckless urethane heads with expressions that range from solemn to ghoulish as they await their next step.
Around the bend from the sanding station is the mixing room, where a collection of liquidized raw tints can be blended to offer an endless spectrum of hues. “Seward’s work is designed to be outside, to be touched. You can’t use acrylic paint for that. To get the hyperrealistic finish…how do you do that?” DeClemente Losavio asks rhetorically. In a moment of creative epiphany, Johnson and his team turned to automotive paint, “because what’s more durable than that?” The automotive paint, adapted for sculptures, offers the desired weather- and fade-resistant lacquer. “The evolution of the [sculpture park’s] body of work is based on technology catching up with [Seward’s] ideas,” says DeClemente Losavio.
Nick Valenza, product lead of paint, patina and preservation, reviews the tints in the mixing room. Photo: Arron Andrews
“We can make any color an artist could ever imagine,” she asserts. For Johnson’s perhaps best-known series, “Celebrating the Familiar,” hyperrealistic figures are fashioned to look like humans and fool the eye. Creating the variations and depth of skin tones for such realism requires not just precise color mixing, but also application.
Much of the paint is applied with spray guns, instruments designed for precision and detail that far exceed the potential of a rudimentary spray-paint can. The craftspeople who wield these guns are trained specialists who have earned certifications to work with these highly specialized chemicals.
The paint booth. Photo: Arron Andrews
There are a several areas for painting, but the premier spot is a 30-foot-tall paint booth—the tallest of its kind east of the Mississippi and one of a handful in the country. Outfitted with a cherry-picker-style lift, the scale of the paint booth is a draw to artists like Roberto Lugo, who painted Put Yourself in the Picture on-site.
Los Mariachis Seward Johnson, 1994, Seward Johnson Atelier, gets a fresh paint job as a staffer uses a precision spray gun to achieve a realistic, human-look finish. Photo: Arron Andrews
The studio has areas for iron- and millwork, as well as cutting-edge digital operations. The Digital Atelier, formerly the research-and-development arm of the business and once privately owned by a former atelier staffer, is now the hub for high tech creating. Johnson embraced innovation and was always eager to learn and incorporate new ways of doing things.
A metalworker makes sparks fly. Photo: Arron Andrews
Here, state-of-the-art processes, such as computerized milling, 3-D printing and digital sculpting technologies, can produce objects for projects from movie sets to video shoots and art installations. The technology can reduce months of work into weeks.
G. Frederick Morante, department coordinator at Johnson Atelier, and a sculptor with a studio on the grounds, programs the digital milling machine. Photo: Arron Andrews
The park’s permanent holdings include the work of more than 150 artists, including New Jerseyans George Segal and Willie Cole. More than 700 artists have created or commissioned work at one or both ateliers.
Grounds for Sculpture is a place to “experience life and really embrace what life’s about,” DeClemente Losavio says. “Sometimes, you need to slow down and look at a piece of artwork and see what the deeper story is.”
Mask-making workshop display. Photo: Arron Andrews
Join the fun
► Latex mask-making class • Wednesdays, October 4–25; 5:30–9:30 pm
In keeping with Johnson’s mission, the Seward Johnson Atelier is committed to growing and supporting art in many facets, with public workshops for budding artists and casual crafters. The four-week class takes students through the process of making molds to create wearable latex masks.
►Take a private group tour behind the scenes
For more information, contact the Johnson Atelier at 609-890-7777.
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