The Juxtamorph Project

In the early 1970s, while learning the craft of casting sculpture in metal, Andrew Werby became fascinated by what happened when he made castings from molds of natural objects and combined them with each other. Mysterious affinities began to emerge, and the composite objects that resulted owed nothing to art history, but had an organic unity of their own. Encouraged, he went on to amass a large library of molds taken from animal, mineral, and vegetable specimens, and used it to create “Juxtamorphic” art in a wide range of media, from ceramics and bronze to paper, plaster, holograms, jewelry, and Sculpted Paint, a medium he worked out on his own. As the century turned, he began using 3D scanning to complement the mold-making, and modeling software to combine the scans, while digital carving and building with CNC machines or 3D printers served to bring these creations into the physical realm. Since then, he has worked to extend his Juxtamorphic style to explore the endless possibilities in the works of Nature as manipulated by the tools of Man.