
Melka Winery Seat
A single, finely perforated painted aluminum panel which forms the front of a metal seat. St. Helena, CA A single, finely perforated painted aluminum panel which forms the front of a metal seat.
In the early 1990's, Zahner began offering engineering and art fabrication services to fine artists, collectors, and patrons of the arts. At the time, Zahner had just completed the complex sculptural buildings by Frank Gehry and Antoine Predock. Zahner began to receive requests to provide art fabrication from local artists and designers as well as internationally established artists.
Producing artistic surfaces wasn't new for the engineers and artisans at Zahner. The company has built artistic features for many years, but it wasn't until the 1990's that the firm begin working in earnest toward developing new processes for the arts community. Zahner has now produced hundreds of artworks of every scale, in a wide variety of mediums, across multiple decades. Zahner provides art fabrication for every gamut of artist. This includes both emerging artists in art, sculpture, and public art, as well as established artists such as Walter de Maria, Jan Hendrix, Sol Lewitt, and Leo Villareal.
Zahner also provides fine art and public art restoration for corroded or otherwise damaged metal artworks. In collaboration with partner firm Metalabs in Kansas City, Zahner has been involved in both the consultation and repair of dozens of artworks, including works by Donald Judd, Martin Puryear and many more.
After producing dozens of artworks for a range of artists, Zahner began offering art services to handle planning, engineering, and production aspects of the public art process. This is useful for artists who are new to the public art process and want someone to walk through the process with them, and equally useful to artists who want a more hands-off approach to the more meticulous aspects of public art.
Zahner can be contracted to manage the entire production of a work of art, from planning and budgeting with the artist all the way to installation. Many artists come to Zahner to manage the technical process fabrication, delivery, and installation for public art projects.
In additional to Public Art, Zahner also has created artworks specifically for galleries and museums, such as the Sol LeWitt artwork entitled 1 3 5 7 9 11, the One Sun 34 Moons artwork by Walter de Maria, as well as many others. Zahner will work directly with an artist or conservator to fabricate fine art on a custom basis.
A single, finely perforated painted aluminum panel which forms the front of a metal seat. St. Helena, CA A single, finely perforated painted aluminum panel which forms the front of a metal seat.
David Dahlquist and Matt Niebuhr with RDG Dahlquist Art Studio designed Sun Pavilion, a public artwork commissioned by the Museum of Cultural Affairs for the City of El Paso, Texas. Zahner provided engineering and custom art fabrication for the artist's design. Photo @ A. ZAHNER COMPANY Zahner fabricated the cut aluminum plates in shapes inspired by paper cutting craft traditions of the area. The face of each metal plate is painted silver while red paint covers the verso. Lit within, the structure resembles a paper lantern in the evening, inviting continued use of the space.
In 2007, the Starlight Theatre added a Donor's Circle designed with local glass artist Dierk Van Keppel. The Donor's Circle for the Starlight Theater features stainless steel, glass and lighting elements in both the ceiling and floor of the outdoor patio. Zahner engineers and artisans worked with Gastinger Walker Harden, with Bob Rohlf and the Starlight Theatre Association of Kansas City to engineer, fabricate, and install the artwork. The surface features glass cast by local Kansas City artist Dierk Van Keppel.
Recent Projects
Latest Updates
Make your inbox more interesting with inspiring projects, educational resources, and other cool metal stuff.