Supporting NUMU's mission to engage the community at the intersection of art and education, Marc D’Estout: Open Investigation aims to explore the artist’s process and decipher the enigmas in D’Estout’s minimalist sculpture. While engaging subconscious surrealist imagery, his sculptures often reveal humor or uncanny associations, addressing fears, personal (mis)communication, social nuance, or pop humor. The work simultaneously communicates the conceptual and a sense of utility.

D’Estout has a deep connection with materials and process, predominantly the challenging skills of hand shaping and fabricating sheet metal forms, which are then finished with carefully crafted surfaces. His style of metalsmithing or metal-shaping falls somewhere between the conventions of the fine art metalsmith and those of artisans who hand-form custom car bodies. His life-long love of automobiles is integral to his visual language and his studio practice, although there is a world of difference in objective and approach in his work. The application of D’Estout’s vision through these highly disciplined craft-based processes is unique in the context of contemporary art.

Marc D’Estout was curator at the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, served as art director/curator at the Monterey Museum of Art and assistant director/curator at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara. He was director of Art and Design at the UCSC Extension.  He holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree from San Jose State University and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from California State University at Hayward.  

Marc D’Estout: Open Investigation is made possible by the generous support of our partners, lenders and sponsors: Marc D'Estout, Jack Fischer Gallery, The Town of Los Gatos, Marc D’Estout and Donors to NUMU’s Annual Campaign.

Curated by Marianne K. McGrath