Forgery (Packing Kathy Acker), c. 1995,
Steel (from blacksmith hammer), hand-carved and laminated paper (pages from Kathy Acker's published books), wood, vinyl, and velvet, 8 x 48 x 38"
Byron Clercx was born in 1960 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received his BS in art from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls, and his MFA from California State University at Fullerton. As a professor, Clercx has taught and worked at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA; the University of Idaho; the School of Art & Design at Marshall University in WV (where he served as chair of the department, then as director); and currently serves as a director at the University of Central Florida School of Visual Arts & Design, and as a board member of the Seminole Cultural Arts Council. He has freelanced for Sculpture (a magazine dedicated to contemporary sculpture) and has given more than 40 public lectures, and his artwork has been featured in more than 80 exhibitions. Clercx works mostly with mixed media and sculpture, and is active in streetscape enhancement, public beautification projects, and promoting the arts in his community.