Chet Geiselman

Chet Geiselman

3D Studio Manager

Phone:765-285-5809

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Room:AJ 119E

Chet Geiselman is a sculptor who describes himself as “a creative problem solver, a collector and arranger of objects and information, a fabricator of visual forms, and a lifelong student of spiritual and human nature.” After receiving a BS in Art from the University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, Chet was awarded an MFA in Metalsmithing from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He creates works that combine the familiar materials of wood and steel with recontextualized found objects. A deep regard for traditional craftsmanship and a love of Bauhaus design is present in his objects; these qualities are offset by the emphatic presence of narrative and associative content introduced by the found object. 

Each of Geiselman’s works suggests a formal relationship to the space it inhabits and alludes to the potential functionality (past or present) of the objects that compose it; at the same time his works, in their juxtaposition of the inanimate and the strangely animate, the found and the handmade, imply an odd narrative quality reminiscent of the absurdist sculptures of surrealist artists like Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. In his works, the interplay of form and content generates a tension that is meditative, awkward, humorous, playful, and ultimately open-ended.

Geiselman grew up in a small German farming community in southern Indiana. His grandfather was a blacksmith, and his father and uncle were welders. Chet learned to weld and build things with his hands at a very early age. Geiselman has taught Sculpture and Metalsmithing at various colleges and universities over the years. Chet has shown his sculptures both nationally and internationally including six one-person exhibitions at Vale Craft Gallery in Chicago as well as numerous juried exhibitions.