Page 62 - The Hunt - Winter 2022

On a recent morning, the elder Welker consults his notes. “Right now, we have about 70 works in progress from about 15 to 20 different artists,” he says.
Sitting just inside his office door are ceramic figures made by Japanese artist
En Iwamura—monochromatic, globular, emoji-like heads swept with weaving corduroy lines not unlike those of a raked gravel garden. “En flew in here on a private jet, and we started working on turning these into bronzes,” Welker says.
Some were being transformed into eight-foot bronzes either destined for Ross + Kramer Gallery in East Hampton, New York, or Art Basel in Miami Beach. “We would scan one, then mill it,” Welker says, referring to Laran’s use of 3D computer programming.
Laran Bronze is located in a structure that was once occupied by a shipbuilder at the height Chester’s manufacturing era. Its vast parking lot has more weeds than cars, accessed through a small arch in a free-standing brick wall that has no apparent function. Scruffy
Laran Bronze
is located in a structure that was once occupied by a shipbuilder at the height of Chester’s manufacturing era. Its vast parking lot has more weeds than cars.
Pouring liquid bronze into molds.
exterior aside, the rambling open space inside is a cosmopolitan crossroads of production and creativity. Off to the left, furnaces are filled with random finished works, including a larger-than-life boxer, a sword-wielding patriot and many works in progress. The rest of the first floor is carved ith more on two upper floors. Many serve as sanctuaries for sculptors with works in progress.
Welker’s son offers an impromptu guided tour, starting on the top floor. One room is devoted to 3D scanning and digital design, while another houses a machine shop featuring a five-axis CNC milling tool—about as far away from the primitive, cauldron atmosphere of the foundry downstairs as one can imagine.
Not all the equipment is for client use.
The Welkers both create elegant, futuristic sculptures. The son also makes jewelry, and the father furniture. “He’s been doing furniture since 2008,” says Lawrence, whose preferred jewelry medium is silver. “They’re both nto dedicated rooms or work areas, wisculptural and functional.”
60 THE HUNT MAGAZINE winter 2022-23